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UNIVERSITY   OF   PENNSYLVANIA 


SB    27    175 


THE   LIFE  AND   POETRY  OF 
JOHN  CUTTS 


BY 


STANLEY  SIMPSON  SWARTLEY 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GKADUATE  SCHOOL  IN 

PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


DEPUTY   BROTHERS  COMP« 

•  hird  Street  and  Dicks  Avenue 

PHILADELPHIA 
1917 


EXCHANGE 


7  5b 


UNIVERSITY  OF   PENNSYLVANIA 


THE   LIFE  AND   POETRY  OF 
JOHN   CUTTS 


BY 
STANLEY  SIMPSON  SWARTLEY 


A  THESIS 

PEESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  IN 

PABTTAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


of 

DEPUTY   BROTHERS   COMPANT 
Sixty-third  Street  and  Dicks  Avenue 

PHILADELPHIA 

1917 


•r- 


07 


TO 
MY  FATHER  AND  MY  MOTHER 


3G12 


PREFACE 

This  study  of  the  life  and  poetry  of  John  Cutts  was  undertaken 
at  the  suggestion  of  Professor  Felix  E.  Schelling.  Lord  Cutts*  volume, 
Poetical  Exercises,  1687,  is  comparatively  rare  and  has  not  heretofore 
been  reprinted.  The  present  text  is  a  careful  reprint  of  the  copy  in  the 
library  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

It  is  a  pleasant  duty  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  Profes- 
sors Felix  E.  Schelling  and  Clarence  G.  Child  for  guidance  and  helpful 
criticisms;  and  to  Professor  Edwin  P.  Cheyney  for  several  fruitful 
suggestions.  It  is  only  thru  the  kindness  of  the  Marquess  of  Ormonde, 
Kilkenny  Castle,  Ireland,  and  the  Historical  Manuscripts  Commission 
that  I  have  had  the  use  of  about  eighty  of  Lord  Cutts'  letters  heretofore 
inaccessible.  For  arranging  and  sending  to  me  copies  of  these  letters 
I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  F.  Ellington  Ball,  who  has  been  calendaring  for 
the  Commission  the  papers  in  Kilkenny  Castle.  I  am  under  obligations 
to  Mr.  Richard  Bagwell,  Clonmel,  Ireland,  the  library  staff  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  librarians  of  Columbia  and  Yale 
Universities  for  courtesies  of  various  kinds.  And  finally  I  am  in- 
debted to  my  wife  for  many  suggestions,  as  well  as  for  the  preparation 
of  the  manuscript  for  the  printer  and  the  reading  of  the  proof. 

Philadelphia,  S.  S.  S. 

April  24,  1917. 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION 

I.  ANCESTRY,  EARLY  YEARS,  EDUCATION  -----  ix 

II.  COURT  AND  EARLY  MILITARY  LIFE  ------  xii 

III.  SERVICE  IN  IRELAND,  BARONY,  AND  MARRIAGE       -     -  xviii 

IV.  SERVICE    AGAINST    FRANCE   UNDER    WILLIAM    AND 

MARLBOROUGH   ----------       xxi 

V.  POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES,  SECOND  MARRIAGE,  REVERSES      xxx 

VI.  COMMANDER  IN  IRELAND,  LAST  DAYS,  CONTEMPORARY 

ESTEEM       -----------   xxxv 

VII.  POETRY,  AND  RELATIONS  TO  WRITERS xxxix 

THE  POEMS  OF  JOHN  CUTTS     ----- 1 

NOTES 28 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  ---------------35 


INTRODUCTION 


i 

ANCESTRY,  EARLY  YEARS,  EDUCATION 

John  Cutts  is  confessedly  a  minor  figure  in  English  literature; 
nevertheless,  he  played  an  important  part  in  many  other  activities  of 
his  time.  A  companion  of  William  upon  the  Prince's  coming  to 
England  in  1688,  he  remained  a  trusted  friend  of  the  King  through- 
out the  reign.  A  hero  in  many  battles,  he  had  a  share  with  Marl- 
borough  in  the  glory  of  Blenheim,  Cutts'  last  and  greatest  fight.  He 
was  also  active  in  politics ;  for  fourteen  years  he  was  governor  of  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  and  for  over  thirteen  years  he  sat  in  Parliament.  It  is 
true  that  he  wrote  most  of  his  poetry  before  he  was  thirty;  but  he 
at  least  partly  redeemed  his  later  years  for  literature  by  his  patronage 
of  Richard  Steele.  An  active  participant  in  many  worthy  activities, 
and  a  poet  as  well,  John  Cutts  is  not  without  interest,  therefore,  to  the 
student  of  English  literature. 

The  records  of  the  Cutte  or  Cutts  family  go  back  to  the  sixteenth 
century.1  There  are  two  branches:  the  Horham  and  the  Childerley 
branch,  in  whjch  Sir  John  Cutte  (d.  1520)  is  the  first  member  whose 
name  we  know;  and  the  Arkesden  branch,  with  Richard  Cutte,  the 
brother  of  Sir  John,  as  the  first. 

The  name  John  was  a  favorite  one  with  the  family,  for  the  poet 
was  at  least  the  ninth  to  be  called  John.  Sir  John  Cutte,  of  Horham 
Hall,  who  died  in  1520,  was  the  first.2  He  built  Horham  Hall,  acquired 
great  estates,  and  was  under-treasurer  to  Henry  VIII.3  The  third  Sir 
John  (d.  1554  or  1555)  was  sheriff  of  Cambridge,  Huntingdon,  and 

'The  Latin  names,  Cutus  de  Lincoln  and  Willelmus  Cutte,  are  recorded  in 
1273  and  1319  respectively,  but  nothing  definite  is  known  concerning  these  per- 
sons. Barber,  British  Family  Names,  220. 

*  For  the  genealogy  of  the  family,  see  Transactions  of  the  Essex  Archaeo- 
logical Society,  article  by  King,  H.  W.,  IV.  25-42 ;  Wright,  T.,  History  of  Essex, 
II,  171  ff.,  236.  Wright  gives  a  copy  of  the  genealogical  inscription  on  the 
altar  tomb  in  the  church  at  Arkesden. 

^Historical  Manuscripts  Commission,  8th  Report,  Appendix,  Part  VII,  18a. 
The  inscription  at  Arkesden  states  that  he  was  treasurer. 

ix 


X  INTRODUCTION 

Essex;  and  was  sent  in  1551  on  a  mission  to  Henry  II  of  France.4 
The  fourth  Sir  John  (d.  1615)  suggests  Chaucer's  Franklin: 

An  housholdere,  and  that  a  greet,  was  he ; 
Seint  Julian  he  was  in  his  contree, 

for  he  was  noted  for  his  housekeeping,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  sent  the 
Spanish  ambassador  to  Sir  John's  manor  house  at  Childerley  to  be 
cared  for  during  a  period  of  illness.  Charles  I  stayed  on  June  6-7, 
1647,  at  Childerley  with  the  fifth  Sir  John  Cutts.44 

The  John  Cutts  in  whom  we  are  immediately  interested  is  a  direct 
descendant  in  the  Arkesden  line.  Tho  this  branch  of  the  family 
was  less  prominent  than  the  Horham  and  the  Childerley  branch,  sev- 
eral of  the  Arkesden  line  were  esquires  or  Members  of  the  Inner 
Temple.  The  fortunes  of  the  two  lines  were  united  in  1670,  when  Sir 
John  Cutte,  sixth  of  the  Horham  line,  died  without  issue.  He  made 
Richard  Cutte,  of  Arkesden,  his  heir ;  and  this  Richard  was  the  father 
of  the  poet.4b 

Richard  Cutte  was  a  man  of  property  and  a  squire.  He  had  mar- 
ried Jane,5  the  daughter  of  Sir  Richard "  Everarde,  of  Much  Wal- 
tham,  Essex.6  The  family  had  been  established  there  since  15 15.6* 
Of  the  poet's  mother  nothing  more  is  known.7 

John  Cutts  was  born  probably  in  1661 7a  at  Woodhall,  Arkesden, 
Essex.8  Woodhall,  the  mansion  house,  had  come  into  the  family  early 
in  the  sixteenth  century.9  Of  the  poet's  childhood  the  records  tell  us 
next  to  nothing.  As  there  were  other  children,  an  elder  brother, 
Richard,  and  three  sisters,10  Anne,  Margaret,  and  Joanna,  it  is  not 
likely  that  he  was  lonely.  If  the  boy  is  father  to  the  man,  the  boy 
John  lived  a  restless,  active  life,  and  was  something  of  a  leader  among 

*Hoby,  Thomas,  Travails  and  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Hoby,  66. 
*a  Masson,  David,  Life  of  Milton,  III,  542.  •«  '  * 

*b  Trans.  Essex  Arch.  Soc.,  ibid. 

5  According  to  Trans.  Essex  Arch.  Soc.,  ibid?,  her  name  was  Joan. 

6  Visitation  of  Essex,  }664-1668,  p.  34.  \ 

64  Morant,  Philip,  The* History  and  Antiquities  of  Essex,  II,  87. 

7  The  tutts  family  in  America  is  descended  from  two  brothers,  who  emi- 
grated prior  to  1646 ;  and  another  brother  and  a  sister  who  came  later.    Accord- 
ing to  tradition,  their   father   was   Richard   Cutte,   Esq.,   of    Grondale   Abbey, 
Arkesden,  Essex,  who  married  a  widow  named  Skelton.     See  Cutts,  Cecil  H., 
Genealogy  of  the  Cutts  Family  in  America,  Albany,  1892.     King,  Trans.  Essex 
Arch.  Soc.,  ibid.,  makes  no  mention  of  such  a  marriage. 

7a  In  the  marriage  license  dated  1690,  he  said  that  he  was  about  twenty-nine 
years  old.  London  Marriage  Licenses,  1521-1869,  p.  370. 

8Walpole,  Horace,  Catalogue  of  Royal  and  Noble  Authors,  1759,  II,  244; 
and  Nichols,  Select  Collection  of  Poetry,  1780,  II,  327,  imply  that  he  was  born 
in  Matching  in  Essex,  but  King  shows  rather  conclusively  by  baptismal  records 
that  he  was  really  born  in  Arkesden. 

9  Wright,  T.,  History  of  Essex,  II,  171  ff. 

10  Trans.  Essex  Arch.  Soc..  ibid. 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

his  fellows.  When  John  was  eight  or  nine  years  old,  his  father  died; 
and  the  property  bequeathed  by  the  collateral  relative,  Sir  John  Cutte, 
to  Richard  Cutte,  of  Arkesden,  passed  upon  Sir  John's  death  in  1670 
to  Richard,  the  elder  son,11  now  the  possessor  of  a  considerable  fortune. 

Of  John's  early  school  life  we  know  nothing.  Our  first  record 
of  him  comes  from  1676.  In  February  of  that  year  he  was  registered 
at  St.  Catharine's  Hall,  Cambridge,  at  the  age  of  fifteen  as  a  fellow 
commoner,12  a  title  indicative  of  wealth  and  of  the  possession  of  spe- 
cial university  privileges. 

Fellow  students  at  St.  Catharine's  were  William  Wotton,  the 
noted  scholar,  who  entered  when  nine  years  old;  John  Calamy  and 
James  Calamy,  sons  of  Dr.  Edward  Calamy,  the  non-conformist;13 
Benjamin  Beversham,  and  a  Bentley,  probably  Richard. 

Several  plausible  reasons  may  be  adduced  for  the  choice  of  St. 
Catharine's.  A  Richard  Cutts  was  fellow  commoner  of  St.  Catharine's 
in  1669,  and  he  is  probably  the  brother  of  the  poet.  Moreover,  the 
college  records  include  the  names  of  John  and  Richard  Everard,  fellow 
commoners  respectively,  in  1658  and  1659 ;  and  Hugh  Everard,  fellow 
in  1659.14 

John's  mother  was  an  Everard  (or  Everade),  and  it  is  easy  to 
believe  that  both  Richard  and  John  Cutts  went  to  St.  Catharine's 
through  influence  from  the  mother's  side.  Or  it  may  be  that  the  popu- 
larity and  prosperity  of  St.  Catharine's  were  sufficient  to  attract  the 
boy.  Among  her  famous  graduates  were  the  poets  Shirley  and  Ban- 
croft, and  Archbishop  Sandys,  Bishop  Hoadly,  John  Strype,  Dr.  John 
Lightfoot,  and  John  Ray,  the  naturalist.  "Among  the  smaller  founda- 
tions St.  Catharine's,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  had 
gained  considerably  both  in  numbers  and  reputation.  In  1672  its  mem- 
bers (including  the  servants  of  the  college)  amounted  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty."15 

How  long  Cutts  stayed  at  Cambridge  we  do  not  know.  There  is 
no  record  that  he  took  his  degree,  tho  the  college  book  that  records 
his  entrance,  records  also  the  graduation  of  several  others  who  entered 
at  about  the  same  time.16  It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  to  an  active,  rest- 
less, and  ambitious  nature  such  as  his,  college  life  and  duties  would 
after  a  time  grow  irksome.  In  1690,  however,  Cambridge  gave  him 

11  Ibid. 

^Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  4th  Report,  Appendix,  424. 

™Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  4th  Report,  Append.,  424. 

"Browne,  G.  F.,  History  of  St.  Catharine  College,  254-255. 

"Mullinger,  J.  Bass,  A  History  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  172. 

"Histor,  MSS.  Comm.,  ibid. 


XH  INTRODUCTION 

the  degree  of  LL.  D.,  comitiis  regiis.17  The  poet's  intimacy  with  King 
William  may  account  for  the  grant  of  the  degree.  Cutts  felt  kindly 
toward  St.  Catharine's,  for  in  1695  he  headed  the  list  of  contributors 
for  the  erection  of  new  buildings.18  In  the  light  of  our  later  knowl- 
edge that  he  was  apparently  never  free  from  heavy  debt,  we  may  feel 
some  legitimate  doubt  as  to  whether  he  ever  paid  the  subscription ! 

II 
COURT  AND  EARLY  MILITARY  LIFE 

Very  little  is  known  about  John  Cutts  from  1676  to  1685.  An 
anonymous  annalist  in  1708  wrote  as  follows :  "Jonn>  Lord  Cuts, 
was  a  Cambridge  gentleman  of  pretty  good  fortune,  which  was  un- 
happily squandered  for  the  most  part  away  in  a  short  time;  which, 
as  I  have  been  informed,  put  him  under  a  kind  of  necessity  of  under- 
taking a  military  life,  tho  'tis  probable  his  genius  might  likewise  very 
much  incline  him  to  it.  And  there  being  at  that  time  no  other  war  on 
foot  in  Europe  but  that  which  commenced  between  the  late  Emperor 
Leopold  and  Sultan  Mahomet  in  1683,  Mr.  Cuts  went  a  volunteer 
among  many  other  gentlemen  into  Hungary."19 

We  have  this  from  another  anonymous  writer  in  1707:  "Upon 
his  first  coming  up  to  London  [after  leaving  Cambridge]  his  Wit, 
Fortune  and  Courage  made  his  Company  acceptable  to  Persons  of  the 
first  Rank,  but  instead  of  being  amuzed  with  the  Gaieties  of  the  Town, 
he  endeavor'd  to  improve  himself  by  the  Conversations  of  such  who 
were  remarkable  for  their  love  to  their  Country,  and  were  eminent 
Defenders  of  the  English  Liberties.  MV  Lord's  surprizing  Conduct 
in  so  unexperienc'd  an  Age,  occasioned  him  the  Friendship  of  several 
Great  Men;  Collonel  Sidney,  my  Lord  Russel,  and  the  then  Earl  of 
Leicester  had  a  particular  respect  for  his  Merits,  and  seem'd  to  foresee 
that  stock  of  Reputation  he  afterwards  so  honourably  acquired.  The 
misfortunes  of  the  Times,  and  the  divisions  between  the  Court,  and 
popular  Party  grew  to  such  a  height,  that  several  Persons  of  Distinc- 
tion suffer'd  either  for  rash  or  objected  Crimes:  In  the  number  of 
these  were  Collonel  Sidney  and  my  Lord  Russel.  .  .  .  My  Lord 
Cutts  had  a  double  dissatisfaction  from  their  misfortune,  he  lamented 
them  as  Friends  and  Patriots  in  a  publick  and  a  private  Capacity."20 

John  Nichols  wrote  many  years  later:  "He  entered  early  into 
the  service  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth."21 

"Cantabrigiensis  Graduati,  1659-1787,  107.  John's  brother  Richard  was 
granted  in  1675  an  A.M.  per  literas  regias. 

™  Hist  or.  MSS.  Comm.,  ibid. 

"The  Compleat  History  of  Europe  for  1707,  454. 

™The  Monthly  Miscellany,  1707,  I.  47. 

21  Nichols,  op.  cit.,  1780,  II,  327.  The  Biographical  Dictionary,  784,  IV,  263, 
has  the  same  general  statement. 


INTRODUCTION  (  Xlll 

Anthony  Wood,  in  speaking  of  Cults'  services  at  Buda  in  1686, 
remarked:  "this  Cutts,  they  say,  was  engaged  in  Monmouth's  plot, 
but  fled  away  upon  his  discomfeiture."22 

Another  biographer  wrote:  "As  he  was  a  servant  to  the  late 
Queen  Mary,  when  Princess  of  Orange,  and  learnt  the  Trade  of  War 
under  her  consort,  so  he  was  early  devoted  to  both  their  Majesties, 
of  ever  pious  and  glorious  memory;  and  had  a  great  share  in,  and 
ever  warmly  stickled  for,  a  settlement  of  the  late  Happy  Revolution."22* 

Finally,  we  have  these  words  from  Cutts  himself :  "I  was  actually 
(when  I  engaged  first  in  your  Majestys  service)  worth  2000  st.  p.  annu.; 
I  owed  then  not  in  all  above  15,000  st.  .  .  .  In  the  year  that  King 
Charles  the  second  dyed,  his  Majesty  (then  Prince  of  Orange)  ask'd  a 
thing  of  me  with  great  Impresment,  by  the  hands  of  a  great  Man. 
.  .  .  I  had  then  in  Lands  of  Inheritance  (as  several  persons  will 
make  oath)  2000  st.  p.  annum.  I  ow'd  (as  persons  will  make  oath) 
not  above  15,000  st. ;  2000  st.  p.  annu.  in  Cambridgeshire  and  Essex 
(where  my  Estate  lay)  was  worth  and  could  be  sold  for  40,000  st."22b 

This  is  all  the  definite  evidence  that  we  have  for  a  period  of  about 
ten  years.  Let  us  examine  it  more  closely  and  fit  it  together. 

Leaving  Cambridge,  Cutts  went  up  to  London  and  became  ac- 
quainted with  some  of  the  progressive  political  leaders — among  them 
Lord  Russell,  a  high-minded  patriot,  and  Algernon  Sidney,  a  thinker 
and  an  eloquent  writer,  both  martyrs  in  1683  for  their  republicanism; 
and  Sidney's  brother,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  a  patron  of  letters.  It 
may  seem  surprising  that  a  young  man  of  only  twenty  could  so 
promptly  make  his  way  into  the  society  of  these  men.  But  we  ought 
not  to  forget  that  Cutts  was  a  university  man  of  good  family,  and 
that  these  liberals  would  be  eager  for  a  vigorous  and  well-born 
following. 

The  acquaintance  with  Russell,  Sidney,  and  Leicester  was  im- 
portant in  its  influence  upon  Cutts.  It  is  altogether  probable  that 
their  liberal  political  opinions  shaped  his  thinking.  And  it  is  also 
likely  that  these  men  had  something  to  do  with  developing  and  mould- 
ing his  literary  interests.  This  latter  influence  will  be  discussed  more 
appropriately  in  the  last  division. 

In  some  way,  Cutts  came  to  know  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  and 
entered  his  service  as  a  retainer.  We  have  no  certain  knowledge  as 
to  how  this  acquaintance  began,  but  several  explanations  are  possible. 

"Wood,  Anthony,  Life  and  Times',  III,  200. 

z^The  History   of  the  Reign  of  Queen  Anne,  Digested  into  Annals;  5th 
Year,  498. 

^Part  of  a  letter  from  Cutts  to  King  William,  March  17,  1698,  in  Trans. 
Essex  Arch*'  Soc.,  ibid. 


Xiv  INTRODUCTION 

The  most  likely  opportunity  came  thru  his  intimacy  with  Sidney  and 
Russell.  Moreover,  the  Duke  was  Chancellor  of  Cambridge  from 
1674  to  1682.28  He  took  some  active  part  in  university  affairs,24  and 
it  is  not  impossible  that  their  acquaintance  began  when  Cutts  was  at 
St.  Catharine's.  The  Duke  was  the  type  of  man  to  appeal  to  him — 
dashing,  luxurious,  splendid,  and  extravagant.  He  sought  eagerly  for 
followers — witness  his  two  progresses  thru  the  West  of  England  in 
1680  and  168225 — and  secured  them  among  all  classes.  It  is  not  dif- 
ficult to  believe  that  this  man  would  fascinate  John  Cutts. 

We  do  not  know  whether  it  was  in  England  or  in  Holland  that 
Cutts  served  the  Duke.  He  could  have  rendered  important  service 
in  both  countries.  Dalrymple  mentions  a  kind  of  activity  in  which 
Cutts  might  easily  have  had  a  share :  "And  a  great  number  of  gentle- 
men's sons,  who  had  been  in  foreign  services,  went  into  England  under 
pretence  of  being  pedlars,  and  spread  themselves  through  disaffected 
counties,  to  be  ready  when  there  was  occasion  for  their  services."26 
On  the  other  hand,  after  1679,  the  Duke  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  on 
the  Continent,  especially  in  Holland.  And  after  1683  many  adherents 
of  the  Duke  found  refuge  at  Prince  William's  Court.  It  is  therefore 
possible,  and  indeed  probable,  that  Cutts  found  opportunity  to  serve  the 
Duke  both  at  home  and  on  the  Continent. 

By  1685,  Cutts  was  in  the  service  of  Prince  William  of  Orange. 
The  Duke  of  Monmouth  was  also  at  the  Hague  at  this  time.  Cutts' 
intimacy  with  Monmouth  is  evident  from  William's  use  of  the  Duke 
as  an  intermediary  in  a  delicate  mission.  The  mission  is  explained  in 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  Cutts  to  King  William 
on  March  17,  1698:  "I  considered  .  .  .  how  earnestly  you  desired 
me  (by  the  Duke  of  Monmouth)  to  break  my  match  with  Mrs.  Villiers, 
and  what  a  promise  you  made  me  upon  it.  ...  I  considered  what 
you  have  since  done  for  her  and  for  her  Relations".27 

H.  Manners  Chichester  28  remarks  that  it  is  not  clear  from  Cutts' 
hasty  memorandum  which  of  the  ladies  that  scandal  connects  with 
William's  name  is  meant.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  a  possible,  mistake  in 
identification,  but  it  seems  that  the  evidence  points  strongly  in  one 
direction.  "Mrs.  Villiers"  is  the  name  by  which  Elizabeth  Villiers,  the 
mistress  of  William  of  Orange,  is  generally  known.29  Elizabeth  Villiers 
and  her  sister  Anne  had  accompanied  the  Princess  Mary  to  Holland 

2SMullinger,  J.  Bass,  ibid.,  162. 

"Roberts,  G.,  Life  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  I,  38. 

*Ibid.,  I,  89,  133. 

^Dalrymple,  Memoirs,  87. 

"Trans.  Essex  Arch  Soc.,  ibid. 

^Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  XIII,  367  ff. 

"Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  "Elizabeth  Villiers,"  Index  Vol. 


INTRODUCTION  XV 

after  her  marriage  to  William,  and  remained  at  court.  Elizabeth  par- 
ticularly was  a  source  of  great  tribulation  to  Mary;  and  scandal  has 
connected  her  sister  Anne's  name  as  well  with  William's.30  William 
would  naturally  make  a  vigorous  effort  to  prevent  the  loss  of  his 
favorite  mistress.  Moreover,  Cutts  refers  in  his  letter  to  William  to 
"what  you  have  since  done  for  her  and  for  her  Relations".  Now,  one 
of  the  scandalous  gifts  made  by  William  after  the  Revolution  was  the 
grant  to  Elizabeth  Villiers  (Lady  Orkney)  of  about  one  hundred 
thousand  acres  of  the  finest  land  in  Ireland,  worth  about  twenty-six 
thousand  pounds  a  year.31  It  is,  therefore,  in  all  probability  with 
Elizabeth  Villiers  that  Cutts  was  obliged  to  break  his  engagement. 

Sometime  before  1685  John's  brother,  Richard  Cutts,  had  died,32 
and  the  estates  at  Arkesden  and  Childerley,  worth  two  thousand  pounds 
a  year,  had  come  into  John  Cutts'  possession.  He  spent  his  money 
lavishly,  or  perhaps  the  estates  were  already  heavily  encumbered,  for 
by  1685  he  was  in  debt  fifteen  thousand  pounds. 

During  the  months  at  the  Dutch  court,  Cutts,  we  are  told,  learned 
the  trade  of  war  under  William.  It  has  been  suggested  that  he  under- 
took a  military  life  partly  to  reestablish  his  fortunes  and  partly  in 
response  to  the  inclination  of  his  nature.  The  latter  reason  at  least 
seems  entirely  probable.  But  a  family  influence  may  also  be  adduced : 
his  maternal  uncle,  Sir  Hugh  Everard,  only  six  years  older  than  Cutts, 
had  been  bred  to  arms,33  and  John's  interest  in  a  military  life  may 
quite  readily  have  been  awakened  by  hearing  from  his  uncle  stories  of  a 
soldier's  life. 

In  the  meantime,  in  the  early  months  of  1685,  Charles  II  had  died, 
and  James  II,  a  Roman  Catholic,  had  come  to  the  throne.  The  accession 
of  James  was  a  blow  to  all  the  Protestants,  and  particularly  to  the 
illegitimate  son  of  Charles,  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  who  had  hoped 
that  somehow  he  might  succeed  his  father.  In  desperation,  the  Duke 
invaded  England  in  June,  1685,  but  was  defeated  at  Sedgemoor,  cap- 
tured, and  executed.  Cutts  probably  had  a  share  in  the  rebellion,  but 
upon  the  Duke's  capture,  he  fled — in  all  probability  to  Holland. 

Meanwhile,  war  had  been  raging  in  Eastern  Europe.  The  Turks 
had  long  been  a  source  of  great  trial,  but  by  1685  Duke  Charles  had 
won  back  all  of  Hungary  except  Buda.  Volunteers  were  flocking  to 
Charles  from  all  parts  of  Europe  to  aid  him  in  his  defence  of  Chris- 
tianity against  the  Mohammedan  Turks.34  According  to  Macaulay, 

"Strickland,  Agnes,  Lives  of  the  Queens  of  England,  VII,  49-50,  70. 
*Dict.  Nat.  Biog.,  LVIII,  326  ff. 

"He  was  still  living  in  February,  1676.    Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1675-6,  578. 
33  Morant,  P.,  History  and  Antiquities  of  Essex  County,  II,  87. 
"Cambridge  Modern  History,  V,  366. 


XVI  INTRODUCTION 

William  of  Orange  had  urged  Monmouth  to  volunteer  in  this  new 
crusade  instead  of  making  an  attempt  upon  England  ;35  and  it  is  quite 
possible  that  William  had  something  to  do  with  Cutts'  enlistment  in 
the  army  of  Duke  Charles  of  Lorraine.  At  any  rate,  "Mr.  Cutts  went 
a  volunteer  among  many  other  gentlemen  into  Hungary".36 

Just  why  should  Cutts  have  undertaken  this  military  service? 
Financial  necessity  has  already  been  suggested  as  a  cause,  and  Cutts' 
own  words,  in  his  letter  to  William,  give  weight  to  the  suggestion. 
Military  service,  with  the  participation  in  booty,  royal  bounties,  and  the 
favors  shown  to  heroes,  would  be  an  attractive  way  of  recouping  a 
lost  fortune.  But  even  without  financial  pressure,  it  is  easy  to  believe 
that  the  Hungarian-Turkish  war  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to  attract 
him.  The  conflict  had  something  of  the  appeal  of  the  old  Crusades ;  it 
was  the  defence  of  Christianity  against  Mohammedanism  The  expedi- 
tion offered  just  the  appeal  to  which  a  vigorous  youth  of  twenty-four 
would  respond. 

Recommended,  perhaps,  by  the  Prince  of  Orange,  Cutts  offered 
himself  to  the  Duke  of  Lorraine.  His  services  were  accepted,  and  he 
was  appointed  the  Duke's  aid-de-camp.37  For  Cutts  the  culmination  of 
the  fighting  was  reached  at  the  seige  of  Buda,  which  lasted  for  ten 
weeks.  According  to  a  private  letter,  most  of  the  Spanish  and  English 
volunteers  were  slain  before  Buda,  and  by  July  30,  1686,  Cutts  himself 
was  wounded.38  "Having  distinguished  his  valor  to  a  very  eminent 
degree  at  the  siege,  he  was  some  time  after  made  Adjutant  General 
to  the  Duke  of  Lorain,  that  being  the  first  commission  he  ever  held".39 
The  promotion  took  place  before  November  25.39a  "His  gallantry 
was  also  recognized  at  home  many  years  later  by  Addison,  who  saw 
fit  to  refer  in  his  Pax  Gulielmi41  to  Cutts'  behavior  at  the  siege.  In  a 
footnote  he  names  Cutts  (Lord  Cutts  when  he  wrote)  as  the  soldier  of 
whom  he  says:  "He  whose  temples  were  but  recently  bound  by  the 
victorious  palms  of  Buda  and  the  foreign  laurel,  fearlessly  fixes  the 
standard.  Rushing  into  the  midst  of  the  battle  line,  where  a  scattered 
storm  of  iron  and  the  beating  hail  of  lead  rages  all  about  him,  he  passes 
thru  the  sulphurous  darkness,  the  noisome  clouds  of  black  fumes,  and 

85Macaulay,  Hist,  of  England,  I,  421. 

36  Compleat  Hist,  of  Europe  for  1707,  ibid. 

37Nichols,  ibid.;  Biographical  Dictionary,  ibid. 

88 Hist or.  MSS.    Co  mm.,  Sth  Report,  Append.,  187. 

^Compleat  History  of  Europe  for  1707,  ibid.  See  also  a  news  letter  in 
Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  Sth  Report,  Append.,  187. 

39a  Wood,  Anthony,  Life  and  Times,  200. 

*  Musae  Anglicanae,  1699,  II,  2.  Addison  included  in  the  volume  poems  by 
others  than  himself.  The  poem  is  included  in  any  complete  edition  of  Addison's 
works. 


INTRODUCTION  XV11 

the  fiery  smoke  red  with  repeated  lightning  flash".42  To  deserve  such 
praise  from  contemporaries,  Cutts  must  have  acquitted  himself  more 
than  ordinarily  well  in  this  his  first  campaign. 

How  long  after  Cutts  remained  with  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  is  not 
known.  A  contemporary  writes  thus:  "Mr  Cuts  some  time  after  this 
[the  adjutant  generalship]  and  possibly  foreseeing  something  of  a 
revolution  like  to  fall  out  in  his  native  country,  left  the  imperial  service 
and  returned  to  the  court  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  at  The  Hague".43 
"Some  time  after"  is  exceedingly  indefinite,  but  may  be  taken  to  mean 
here  about  four  months,434  This  conclusion  harmonizes  fairly  well 
with  the  publication  of  his  Poetical  Exercises  early  in  1687,  an  event 
which  likely  required  his  presence  in  Holland  or  England. 

During  these  months  that  Cutts  was  at  the  Hague,  it  is  not  un- 
likely that  he  made  occasional  trips  to  England,  as  the  use  of  the  word 
"continue"  below  suggests.  And  it  is  certain  that  he  was  growing  in 
the  favor  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  "21  March,  1687-8.  Mr.  Cutts  has 
gone  to  Holland  to  continue  there  and  is  made  lieutenant-colonel  of  a 
regiment".44  We  learn  elsewhere  that  the  command  given  by  the 
prince  (William)  was  in  one  of  the  English  regiments  in  the  service 
of  the  States  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Sidney,  earl  of  Romney.45 

Meanwhile,  trouble  was  brewing  in  England  for  James  II.  After 
the  birth  of  a  son  to  James,  events  moved  rapidly.  On  June  30,  1688, 
William  was  invited  to  take  the  English  throne,  on  November  5,  he 
landed  at  Tor  Bay,  and  on  February  13,  1689,  William  and  Mary  were 
declared  King  and  Queen  of  England.  "In  1688  (Cutts)  came  over 
Lieutenant  Colonel  in  one  of  them  [the  English  regiments]  with  his 
Highness  to  vindicate  the  Religion  and  Liberties  of  England  from 

42  The  extract  follows  (II.  27-32)  : 

"Vexillum  intrepidus  a  fixit,  cui  tempora  dudum 
Budenses  palmae,  peregrinaque  laurus  obumbrat. 
Ille  ruens  aciem  in  mediam,  qua  ferrea  grando 
Sparsa  furit  circum,  et  plumbi  densissimus  imber 
Sulphuream  noctem,  tetras  bitumine  nubes 
Ingreditur,  crebroque  rubentem  fulgure  fumum. 

a  Honoratissimus  D.  Dominus  Cutts,  Baro  de  Gowran,  etc." 

**  Compleat  History  of  Europe  for  1707,  ibid. 

**a  The  author  has  used  the  same  phrase  in  an  earlier  sentence  concerning" 
the  command  given  to  Cutts  by  Duke  Charles :  "he  was  some  time  after  [dis- 
tinguishing himself  at  the  siege  of  Buda]  made  Adjutant  General"  (see  above 
p.  xvi).  Assuming  that  he  distinguished  himself  at  the  time  of  his  wound,  before 
July  30  (Hist  or.  MSS.  Co  mm.,  5th  Report,  Append.,  181),  and  knowing  that  he 
was  made  adjutant  general  before  November  25  (Wood,  A.,  Life  and  Times, 
200),  we  calculate  that  "some  time  after"  means  in  this  instance  about  four 
months.  On  this  calculation  then,  Cutts  left  the  imperial  service  about  February 
or  March,  1687. 

44  Luttrell,  Narcissus,  Relation  of  State  Affairs,  I,  under  the  date  given. 

46  The  Monthly  Miscellany,  I,  48. 


XV111  INTRODUCTION 

Popery  and  arbitrary  Power.  Mr.  Cutts,  upon  that  Prince's  assuming 
the  crown  of  England,  began  to  make  a  considerable  figure  [and] 
became  soon  Colonel".46 

William's  coming  to  England  was  financially  profitable,  as  well, 
to  Colonel  Cutts.  On  February  5,  1690,  Cutts  presented  a  petition  ask- 
ing for  an  inquiry  into  certain  lands  in  Bedford,  Somerset,  Devon,  and 
Cornwall,  which  were  liable  to  forfeiture  to  the  Crown,  under  an  act 
to  prevent  the  growth  of  popery.  Within  less  than  two  months,  his 
vigilance  was  rewarded,  for  lands  and  estates  belonging  to  Jesuits  in 
several  counties  were  granted  him.47  The  value  of  the  lands  is  not 
known. 

In  1685  and  1687  respectively  Cutts  published  in  London  La  Muse 
de  Cavalier  and  Poetical  Exercises.  I  shall  discuss  in  the  last  section 
the  contents  of  these  two  volumes  and  the  questions  raised  by  them. 

Ill 
SERVICE  IN  IRELAND,  BARONY,  AND  MARRIAGE 

King  James  had  resolved  to  contest  the  new  sovereigns'  right  to 
the  throne  of  England.  To  this  end  he  landed  in  Ireland  in  March, 
1689,  soon  after  William  and  Mary  had  been  proclaimed  King  and 
Queen.  If  they  were  to  remain  safe  on  the  throne,  the  rebellion  in 
Ireland  must  be  put  down.  Much  delay  occurred  in  1689,  and  it  was 
not  until  June,  1690,  that  William  himself  arrived  and  advanced  upon 
Dublin  with  thirty-five  thousand  soldiers.48  Colonel  Cutts,  who  had 
reached  Ireland  by  April  19,  1690,48a  commanded  a  regiment  in  this 
army. 

The  battle  of  the  Boyne — so-called  from  the  river  that  flows 
near  Dublin — followed  on  July  1,  1690.  According  to  Macaulay, 
Colonel  Cutts  commanded  the  fifth  regiment  of  the  line  at  this  battle. 
"The  regiment  was  led  by  an  officer  who  had  no  skill  in  the  higher 
branches  of  military  science,  but  whom  the  whole  army  allowed  to 
"be  the  bravest  of  all  the  brave,  John  Cutts."49  At  a  particular  point 

46  The  Compleat  History  of  Europe,  ibid.     In  Calendar  State  Papers,  Domes- 
tic, 1689,  p.  161,  he  is  on  June  22,  1689,  referred  to  as  Colonel  John  Cutts.    The 
Biog.  Diet.,  ibid.,  has  this :     "Returning  to  England  at  the  Revolution,  he  had  a 
regiment  of  foot."    It  is  possible  to  interpret  this  statement  to  mean  that  Cutts 
was  colonel  of  a  regiment  at  the  time  he  returned  from  Holland ;  but  it  is  also 
possible,  and  better,  to  interpret  it  in  harmony  with  the  other  authority. 

47  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  II,  24. 

48  Trevelyan,  England  under  the  Stuarts,  453. 
^Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  II,  34. 

48  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  III,  495.  Chichester,  Die.  Nat.  Biog.,  XIII, 
367  ff.,  maintains  that  Macaulay  is  wrong,  for  there  is  no  evidence  that  Cutts 
was  in  the  Fifth  Fusiliers.  However,  Walton,  Clifford,  History  of  the  British 
Standing  Army  from  1660-1700,  107  and  note,  agrees  with  Macaulay. 


INTRODUCTION  XV1V 

in  the  battle,  a  regiment  of  English  foot  performed  "a  seasonable 
instance  of  British  valor"  in  helping  William  out  of  a  perplexing  situa- 
tion; this,  according  to  Colonel  Walton,  must  have  been  Cutts'  regi- 
ment.50 

On  August  27,  1690,  after  a  number  of  days  of  skirmishing  in 
which  Cutts  had  a  part,  an  attack  was  made  on  Limerick.  Colonel  Cutts, 
at  the  head  of  the  grenadiers,  was  ordered  to  mount  a  breach  in  the 
wall,  but  perhaps  because  orders  were  not  exactly  obeyed,  the  attack 
failed.51  During  the  course  of  the  fighting  Cutts  had  been  wounded, 
:but  how  seriously  is  not  reported.52 

It  is  July,  1691,  before  we  hear  of  another  battle  in  which 
Colonel  Cutts  had  a  part,  tho  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  he 
did  not  have  a  share  in  at  least  some  of  the  fighting  before  this  date. 
A  hard-fought  battle  took  place  at  Aughrim  on  July  1,  and  Colonel 
Cutts  was  again  wounded.53 

The  enemy  made  another  stand — and  their  last — at  Limerick 
in  1691 ;  but  they  were  finally  compelled  to  surrender.  The  city  sur- 
rendered on  October  3,  1691,  to  Colonel  Cutts — now  Lord  Cutts,  as  we 
shall  see — ,  who  marched  in  at  the  head  of  seven  regiments  of  foot.54 

Within  a  short  time,  Colonel  Cutts  had  likely  returned  to  England 
with  his  regiment,  for  we  hear  of  a  quarrel  at  Cambridge  between 
soldiers  of  his  regiment  and  some  scholars  about  drinking  the  King's 
health.55 

In  the  wars  in  Ireland  Colonel  Cutts  "had  signalized  himself  very 
much,"  and  had  "received  some  dangerous  wounds".56  Cutts,  Marl- 
borough,  Douglass,  and  Cunningham  "had  been  eminently  instrumental 
in  the  reduction  of  the  kingdom".57  Some  citizens  of  London  had 
shown  their  appreciation  by  giving  General  Ginkle,  Colonel  Cutts,  and 
other  officers  "a  treat"  that  cost  five  hundred  pounds!57*  That  Cutts' 
name  should  be  mentioned  second  on  the  list  is  significant.  To 
William,  Cutts  had  proved  himself  a  valuable  officer.  It  is  not  at  all 
surprising,  therefore,  that  before  the  war  was  over — on  December 
4,  1690 — ,  there  was  issued  a  warrant  for  a  grant  to  create  John  Cutts 
a  "baron  of  Ireland  by  the  title  of  Baron  Cutts  of  Gowran,  with 

50  Walton,  op.  cii.,  116. 

51  Parker,  Robert,  Memoirs,  27. 
3  Davies,  R.,  Journal,  144. 

63  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Domestic,  1691,  485. 

"  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  II,  293. 

55  Luttrell,  op  cit.,  II,  330. 

M  Compleat  History  of  Europe,  ibid. 

"  Salmon,  T.,  Chronological  Historian,  45. 

*Ta  Luttrell,  op.  cit.f  II,  363. 


XX  INTRODUCTION 

limitation  to  the  heirs  male  of  his  body".58  Luttrell  adds  that  King 
William  made  the  grant  "in  consideration  of  his  [Cutts']  faithful 
services  to  him".59 

It  was  fitting  that  the  kingdom  in  which  he  had  seen  important 
military  service  should  be  the  seat  of  his  barony.  And  to  Lord  Cutts 
the  grant  was  no  doubt  gratifying ;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  he  had  heavy 
debts  and  needed  money;  yet  the  forfeited  estates  in  Ireland  were 
withheld  from  him  and  many  other  deserving  Englishmen  who  had 
helped  to  make  William's  throne  secure,  and  given  instead  to  the 
Dutch,  and  Lord  Galway,  a  French  refugee,  and  Mrs.  Villiers,  the 
King's  mistress.60 

But  a  still  more  important  event  had  occurred  shortly  after  the 
grant  of  the  barony.  One  writer  suggests,  indeed,  that  it  was  in  honor 
of  this  event  that  Cutts  was  made  a  baron.61  On  December  18,  1690, 
Lord  Cutts  was  married  to  Elizabeth  Trevor.62  Rumors  of  the 
engagement  had  been  abroad  for  almost  a  year. 

"February  25,  1689-90.  Several  marriages  are  talked  of,  as 
that  the  widow  Trevor  and  Mr.  Cutts  is  concluded,  but  he  is  to  go  into 
Ireland,  and  she  doth  not  care  to  marry  him  till  he  comes  back,  and 
he  would  gladly  be  sure  first". 

"April  29,  1690.  Mr.  Cutts  is  sure  of  the  widow  Trevor,  but 
she  will  not  have  him  till  he  returns  out  of  Ireland".63  Nevertheless 
she  did  "have  him"  before  he  returned  out  of  Ireland  permanently, 
for  after  the  marriage  there  was  still  before  him  the  campaign  of  1691. 

Mrs.  Trevor  was  the  daughter  and  heir  of  George  Gark,  a  Lon- 
don merchant.  In  1671,  at  sixteen,  she  married  William  Morley, 
of  Glynd,  Sussex.  Eight  years  later  she  married  John  Trevor,  a 
bachelor  three  years  her  senior,  secretary  of  state  to  Charles  II.  In 
the  license  granted  to  her  and  Lord  Cutts,  it  is  stated  that  he  was  a 
bachelor  about  twenty-nine  years  old,  and  she  a  widow  about  thirty; 
but  on  the  basis  of  the  figures  quoted  above,  she  was  at  least  thirty- 
five.64 

It  is  not  surprising  that  Cutts  "would  gladly  be  sure  first",  for 
Mrs.  Trevor  was  "a  widdow  of  a  great  fortune".65  Tho  this  was  her 

88  CaL  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1690,  180. 
"  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  II,  139. 

*°  Salmon,  T.,  Chronological  Historian,  1722,  235. 
81  Compleat  History  of  Europe,  ibid. 
"Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  II,  145. 

"Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  14th  Report,  Append.,  Pt.  II,  444,  447. 
84  See  London  Marriage  Licenses,  1521-1869,  pp.  370,  1358 ;  and  Trans.  Essex 
Arch.  Soc.,  ibid. 

68  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  II,  145. 


INTRODUCTION  XXI 

third  venture  (she  professed  to  be  only  thirty!),  she  had  apparently 
not  forgotten  how  to  be  coy.  And  if  Lord  Cutts  found  any  draw- 
back in  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Trevor  had  already  been  twice  married, 
he  probably  found  consolation  in  her  jointure  of  twenty-five  hundred 
pounds  a  year66 — a  considerable  item  to  a  man  as  deeply  in  debt  as  he 
was. 

IV 

SERVICE  AGAINST  FRANCE  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND 
MARLBOROUGH 

Lord  Cutts  was  soon  to  see  active  service  again.  England  had 
declared  war  against  France  on  May  13,  1689,  but  so  stubborn  had 
been  the  Irish  resistance  that  two  years  had  passed  before  William 
was  able  to  give  undivided  attention  to  the  French.  On  March  3, 
1692,  a  post-warrant  was  issued  for  Lord  Cutts  and  his  servant  to 
go  to  Harwich  ;67  and  on  March  19,  his  regiment  marched  for  Kingston 
to  embark  for  Flanders — among  the  first  to  be  sent.68 

The  earliest  fighting  raged  around  Namur;  but  despite  William's 
desperate  efforts  to  protect  it,  the  city  fell  on  May  26,  1692  (O.  S.). 
Later,  on  June  23,  in  one  of  the  skirmishes  that  must  have  occurred 
frequently,  Lord  Cutts  was  wounded  at  Enghien69 — apparently  not 
very  seriously,  for  he  was  with  his  regiment  in  the  battle  of  Stein- 
kirk  fought  on  August  3.  Lord  Cutts'  regiment  was  one  of  the  six 
that  made  the  attack;  it  with  two  others  was  "terribly  punished".70 
Lord  Cutts  himself  was  wounded,71  rather  severely  this  time,  for  two 
months  later  he  was  still  lame  and  on  crutches,  and  allowed  to  return 
to  England  on  furlough  for  seven  or  eight  weeks.72  Early  in  the  next 
year — March  22,  1693, — he  was  promoted  to  be  brigadier  general  of 
foot.73 

Other  events  to  be  discussed  later  took  much  of  Lord  Cutts' 
interest  during  the  year  1693,  and  his  name  has  only  occasional  mention 
in  military  affairs.  On  June  24  the  Queen  discussed  a  certain  obscure 
"descent" — perhaps  the  attack  on  Brest  that  actually  occurred  a  year 

"Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  Ill,  41. 
*T  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1692,  168. 
68  Luttrell,  op.  cit.t  II,  293. 
"  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1692,  392. 

"  Fortescue,  J.  W.,  History  of  the  British  Army,  I,  367.     Corporal  Trim,  in 
Sterne's  Tristram  Shandy,  says  that  Cutts'  regiment  was  "cut  to  pieces." 
n  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1692,  429. 

n  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  II,  587 ;  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1692,  519. 
"  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1693,  78. 


XX11  INTRODUCTION 

later — with  Lord  Cutts,  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  and  other  field  officers ; 
and  in  November  "he  was  assigned  to  review  certain  regiments  in 
Hampshire".74  Most  of  the  year  seems  to  have  been  spent  in  England. 

It  was  in  the  middle  of  June,  1694,  that  Lord  Cutts  took  part  in 
an  unfortunate  attack  upon  France — the  Brest  Expedition.  The  plan 
of  the  expedition  was  simple:  General  Talmash  and  his  troops  were 
to  be  taken  to  Brest  in  Britanny.  The  harbor  fortifications  were  to  be 
attacked  and  the  city  captured.75  Lord  Cutts  was  present  at  a  council 
of  war  on  board  the  Britannia  on  May  31,  and  accompanied  the  expedi- 
tion. He  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  conference  held  on  June  6, 
and  his  advice  was  favorably  received.  On  the  next  day  he  was  a 
member  of  a  reconnoitering  expedition ;  it  was  fired  upon  but  returned 
safely.  Tho  the  fortifications  were  found  to  be  much  stronger  than 
had  been  suspected,  the  original  plans  were  adhered  to. 

On  the  morning  of  June  8  the  attack  began.  Lord  Cutts  was  to 
land  first  with  a  few  men  to  discover  the  enemy  and  Talmash  was  to 
follow.76  But  for  some  reason  the  agreement  was  broken,  the  larger 
body  of  troops  landed  first.  Talmash  was  mortally  wounded,  and  in 
the  retreat  that  followed,  many  soldiers  were  killed  or  drowned.  Lord 
Cutts  himself  narrowly  escaped,  for  he  had  just  left  a  long  boat  before 
it  sank  with  all  on  board.77 

Some  one  had  blundered  or  taken  matters  into  his  own  hands. 
Mrs.  Talmash  said  that  the  general  had  complained  of  "the  Lords'* 
for  not  obeying  orders,  and  sent  a  message  about  it  to  the  Queen  a 
little  before  his  death.78  A  contemporary  agrees  with  Talmash  in 
part:  "Lord  Macclesfield  acted  as  prudently  in  beating  a  retreat  as 
my  Lord  Cutts  did  undutifully  in  not  going  on".79  Finally,  a  cautious 
statement  of  another  contemporary  worth  quoting:  "  'Tis  easy  to 
impute  rashness  to  the  dead  [Talmash],  to  excuse  cowardice  in  the 
living".80 

But  there  is  another  side.  The  Marquess  of  Caermarthen  wrote 
that  great  confusion  prevailed  during  the  landing,  without  any  regard 
to  the  order  for  conducting  the  disembarkation;  and  that  Lord  Cutts 

74Luttrell,  op.  cit.  Ill,  124,  223. 

"  See  for  an  account  of  the  expedition,  Osborne,  Peregrine,  Marquess  of 
Caermarthen,  A  Journal  of  the  Brest  Expedition,  1694 ;  Mackinnon,  Colonel,  The 
Origin  and  Services  of  the  Coldstream  Guards,  I,  243. 

76  Newdigate — Newdegate,  Lady,  Cavalier  and  Puritan,  286,  quotes  a  letter 
from  a  John  Scott,  who  had  information  direct  from  Cutts. 

77  According  to  one  report,  he  was  wounded;  Hist.  MSS.  Comm.;  7th  Report, 
Append.,  535. 

™Hist.  MSS.  Comm.,  14th  Report,  Append.,  Pt.  2,  551. 

79  Cat.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1694,  184. 

80  Sir  Richard   Newdegate,  in  Newdigate-Newdegate,    Lady,    Cavalier    and 
Puritan,  ibid. 


INTRODUCTION  XX111 

and  all  the  officers  of  the  land  forces  "have  shown  all  the  forwardness 
and  readiness  imaginable  for  attempting  anything  that  was  possible 
to  be  done  on  this  occasion".81  Moreover,  "it's  certain",  said  another 
contemporary,  "if  they  had  prosecuted  the  regular  landing  which 
Lord  Cutts  proposed,  they  in  all  probability  [would]  have  suc- 
ceeded".82 Tho  charges  of  "undutifully  not  going  on"  and  of  "cow- 
ardice" mentioned  by  two  of  the  writers  may  be  received  with  a  good 
deal  of  scepticism,  for  Lord  Cutts  bore  a  reputation  rather  for  courage, 
even  rashness,  than  for  cowardice.  Finally,  it  would  not  seem  as  if 
the  military  authorities  held  Lord  Cutts  culpable,  for  four  months 
later,  on  October  11,  1694,  he  was  given  Talmash's  command,  the 
colonelcy  of  the  second  regiment  of  footguards,  better  known  as  the 
Coldstream  Guards.83 

After  Brest,  there  followed  his  return  to  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and 
a  melancholy  review  on  June  22  of  the  forces  that  fought  at  Brest, 
participation  in  Lord  Berkeley's  first  attempt  at  a  raid  in  France,  and 
a  brief  visit  to  London.84  Cutts  later  joined  the  fleet  at  Dieppe,  and 
probably  saw  the  inglorious  raid  upon  the  helpless  and  unprotected 
cities  of  Dieppe,  Havre,  and  Calais  in  July.85 

By  August  30  Lord  Cutts  was  with  William  on  the  Continent. 
In  a  letter  to  a  friend  he  said  that  the  King  had  received  him  kindly 
and  that  he  was  likely  to  succeed  in  his  pretensions86 — perhaps  a 
reference  to  the  colonelcy  of  the  Coldstreams  which  he  actually  did 
receive  a  month  later.  But  he  was  back  in  England  by  the  middle  of 
November,87  and  within  the  next  four  months  was  assigned  the  duty 
of  preparing  and  dispatching  troops  to  Jamaica  and  Spain — the  latter 
destination  no  very  desirable  place  of  service,  it  would  appear,  for 
some  of  the  troops  mutinied  and  refused  to  go  aboard  the  ships.88 

Meanwhile,  King  William  was  preparing  for  his  spring  cam- 
paign. On  April  18,  1695,  the  King  ordered  Cutts  to  report  in 


81  Osborne,  Peregrine,  Marquess  of  Caermarthen,  ibid. 
0  The  Compleat  History  of  Europe  for  1707,  ibid. 

88  Luttrell,  ibid.f  III,  382. 

84  Cal  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1694,  196 ;  Luttrell,  ibid.,  Ill,  338. 

86  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1694,  219. 

M  The  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  1885-86,  II,  176. 

87  Ibid.,  178. 

89  Luttrell,  ibid.f  III,  413,  452. 
89  Ibid.,  111,462. 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION 

Flanders  as  lieutenant  general  of  foot.89  Preparations  began  im- 
mediately, but  various  delays  interposed,  and  it  was  probably  June 
20  before  he  arrived.90'  91 

The  main  object  of  attack  was  Namur,  surrendered  to  the  French 
three  years  before.  The  siege  was  begun  in  the  latter  part  of  June, 
1695,  and  on  July  8  (O.  S.)  the  fortifications  were  attacked.  Lord 
Cutts  at  the  head  of  five  battalions  of  footguards,  began  the  onset  on 
the  right.92  "Conspicuous  in  bravery  even  among  those  brave  English 
was  Cutts.  In  that  bulldog  courage  which  flinches  from  no  danger, 
however  terrible,  he  was  unrivalled.  There  was  no  difficulty  in  finding 
hardy  volunteers  .  .  .  to  go  on  a  forlorn  hope ;  but  Cutts  was  the 
only  man  who  appeared  to  consider  such  an  expedition  as  a  party  of 
pleasure.  He  was  so  much  at  his  ease  in  the  hottest  fire  of  the  French 
batteries  that  his  soldiers  gave  him  the  honorable  nickname  of  the 
Salamander."^-  9* 

From  this  date  until  the  French  surrendered,  Cutts'  name  is 
mentioned  repeatedly  in  the  accounts  of  the  siege.  He  was  appointed 
brigadier  of  the  Coldstream  Guards,  an  honor  no  brigadier  had  enjoyed 
before.95  On  July  18  and  22  and  on  August  8  and  10  Lord  Cutts 
had  part  in  important  attacks.96 

On  the  afternoon  of  August  20,  Cutts  at  the  head  of  three  hun- 
dred grenadiers  led  the  way  to  the  position  to  which  he  had  been 
assigned.  This  would  not  have  been,  ordinarily,  Cutts'  command  for 
the  day,  but  he  especially  desired  it  and  it  was  assigned  to  him.  Accord- 
ing to  his  custom  he  led  the  attack  personally.  Many  were  killed  or 
wounded,  and  Cutts  fell  with  a  wound  in  his  head.  His  men  rushed 
on,  but  discouraged  and  overwhelmed  by  numbers,  before  long  they  fell 
back.  In  the  meantime  having  had  the  wound  dressed,  Cutts  put  him- 
self again  at  the  head  of  his  men  and  led  them  to  a  successful  relief 

"Ibid.,  Ill,  476,  478,  481.  Manners,  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  Ill,  467  ff.,  says  that 
Cutts  was  one  of  the  commissioners  for  settling  the  bank  at  Antwerp,  but  (unless 
he  has  authorities  that  he  does  not  mention)  this  conclusion  is  a  misinterpreta- 
tion of  Luttrell  III,  481 :  " Rivers,  Lord  Cutts,  and  the  commissioners 

going  to  settle  the  bank  at  Antwerp  lie  wind  bound  at  Harwich." 

n  The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  to  a  friend  throws  light  both 
on  Cutts'  intimacy  with  the  King  and  on  his  own  character:  "The  Lords  of 
the  Admiralty  have  been  so  kind  as  to  order  me  one  of  the  King's  best  yatchs ; 
the  cabbin  I  am  now  sitting  in  is  finer  and  richlyer  furnish'd  than  any  room  in 
the  Isle  of  Wight.  Dear  Dudley,  God  prosper  us,  and  our  Master."  Proceed- 
ings Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1885-6,  II,  182. 

w  Rapin,  History  of  England,  Tindal's  continuation,  I,  190. 

93  Macaulay,  Hist,  of  England,  IV,  470-1. 

**  Cutts  appreciated  bravery  in  others,  too,  for  he  tried  to  secure  a  pardon  for 
a  murderer  who  had  received  fourteen  wounds  at  Namur.  Cal,  State  Papers, 
Dom.,  Feb.  17,  1696. 

*"  Mackinnon,  Coldstream  Guards,  I,  249. 

96  Tindal,  op.  cit.,  I,  190,  192 ;  Mackinnon,  op.  cit.,  I,  250. 


INTRODUCTION  XXV 

of  the  Bavarian  troops,  by  that  time  sorely  pressed.  Within  forty-eight 
hours  the  French  surrendered,  and  Namur  was  once  more  in  English 
hands.97 

This  was  the  last  event  of  military  importance  for  the  year.  By 
January,  1696,  Lord  Cutts  had  returned  to  London,  and  on  the 
fifteenth  of  the  month  was  examined  in  the  House  of  Commons  con- 
cerning election  expenses  and  the  purchase  of  seats  in  Parliament. 
His  testimony  seems,  however,  unimportant.98 

Lord  Cutts  did  not  return  to  Flanders  before  spring;  and  during 
these  months  in  England  he  acted  as  Captain  of  the  King's  Guards.99 
In  this  capacity  he  had  an  interesting  part  in  uncovering  the  Assassina- 
tion Plot.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  plans  of  a  number  of  Roman 
Catholics  who  had  plotted  to  assassinate  William  on  his  way  to  a 
hunt,  were  revealed  by  Pendergrass,  one  of  the  original  party.  Lord 
Cutts,  who  was  present  at  the  interview  between  William  and  Pender- 
grass, urged  Pendergrass  to  "own  himself  and  the  service  he  had 
already  done".100  Cutts  later  testified  at  the  trial  of  the  conspirators.101 
He  soon  after  showed  his  continued  diligence  in  serving  William  by 
seizing  at  an  inn  in  Smithfield  some  persons  "with  a  muster  roll  of 
English  and  others  engaged  in  the  pay  here  to  continue  in  this  con- 
spiracy".102 His  faithfulness  was  rewarded  on  April  28,  1696,  by  the 
gift  from  the  King  of  the  confiscated  estate  of  Mr.  Carryl,  of  Sussex, 
late  secretary  to  Mary  of  Modena,  wife  of  James  II.  The  estate  was 
worth  nearly  two  thousands  pounds  a  year  —  no  inconsiderable  item 
to  a  spendthrift  and  a  debt-pressed  man.103-  104 

"Tindal,  op.  cit.,  I,  192  ff.;  Macaulay,  op.  cit.,  IV.,  475;  Walton,  Clifford, 
op.  cit.,  309. 

98  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  5  ;  Macaulay,  op.  cit.,  IV,  549. 

*  Burnet,  Gilbert,  History  of  His  Own  Times,  IV,  305. 
100         ,  IV,  305. 


101  The  Trials  and  Condemnation  of  Robert  Charnock,  Edward  King,  and 
Thomas  Keyes,  Dublin,  1696. 

109  Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  5th  Report,  Append.,  385;  Carleton,  Memoirs. 

103  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV.,  51,  62.    Tho  abroad,  Carryl  had  been  permitted  to 
enjoy  the  income  from  his  English  estate.     But    when  the    King  learned    that 
Carryl  had  actually  contributed  eight  hundred  pounds  toward  the  success  of  the 
Assassination  Plot,  the  estate  in  Sussex  was  confiscated. 

104  An  echo  of  the  Assassination  Plot  is  found  in  Lord  Cutts'  successful  at- 
tempt to  secure  a  pardon  for  Captain  Thomas    Vaughan,  who    had    been    con- 
demned to  death  for  participation  in  the  plot.    This,  by  the  way,  is  not  the  first 
time  that  Lord  Cutts  generously  interested  himself  in  condemned  criminals.     I 
have  already  referred   (p.  xxiv)  to  his  plea  in  February,  1696,  in  behalf  of  a 
condemned  murderer  who  had  received  fourteen  wounds  at  Namur.    And  again 
in  May,  1696,  he  asked  that  a  certain  Charles  Stanley  shall  not  be  pilloried,  for 
such  punishment  will  disqualify  him  from  entering  the  army  —  a  thing  he  desires 
to  do  (Cal  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1696,  May  12).    Curiously  enough,  these  three 
instances  of  Cutts'  interest  in  condemned  criminals  are  all  in  1696. 


XXvi  INTRODUCTION 

Previous  to  the  opening  of  the  spring  campaign  in  1696,  on  May 
31,  to  be  exact,  Lord  Cutts  was  promoted  to  a  major-generalship.105 
By  the  middle  of  June,  he  was  planning  to  go  to  Flanders,  but  for  some 
reason  the  journey  was  postponed  until  July  2'.106  The  campaign  was 
uneventful,  and  by  September  17  Cutts'  regiment,  the  Coldstream 
Guards,  was  ordered  into  winter  quarters  at  Ghent.107  By  October  5 
Lord  Cutts  had  returned  to  England,108  but  soon  .after  made  a  flying 
trip  to  the  Continent  and  was  back  in  England  by  October  17  prepared 
to  make  a  report  to  William. 

Little  is  known  of  Lord  Cutts5  activities  the  first  six  months  of 
1697.109  In  January  a  large  part  of  Whitehall  Palace  was  destroyed 
by  fire.  Cutts  was  present,  in  charge  of  the  troops,  and  did  important 
service  in  preventing  greater  loss  than  there  was.109a  Reported  to  be 
sailing  for  Holland  on  May  1  and  20,  it  was  June  5  before  he  actually 
left.110  Meanwhile,  commissioners  were  discussing  terms  of  peace. 
Delay  after  delay  occurred.  Possibly  Lord  Cutts  had  some  share  in 
the  negotiations  in  July  or  August;111  and  it  is  reasonable  to  assume 
that  the  secret  negotiation  upon  which  he  went  to  Vienna  in  the  last 
days  of  August  or  the  first  of  September  was  an  attempt  to  press 
the  Emperor  to  agree  to  peace.112  The  mission  performed,  he  had 
returned  to  England  by  September  30.113' 114 

During  the  next  year  or  two,  Lord  Cutts  met  severe  financial 
reverses,  which  we  shall  discuss  in  the  next  section.  He  probably  had 
few  if  any  important  military  duties  the  years  of  peace  that  followed ; 
but  peace  was  to  be  shortlived.  War  with  France  over  the  Spanish 
succession  was  in  project.  Possibly  the  addition  of  recruits  to  Cutts' 
regiment  of  footguards  in  1699  and  his  review  of  the  militia  in  several 

305  Mackinnon,  op.  cit.,  I,  263.    Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  53,  reports  a  rumor  of 
it  early  in  the  month. 

108  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  63,  69. 

107  Mackinnon,  op.  cit.,  I,  266. 

108  On  October  5,  1696,  he  wrote  a  letter  from  Kensington  to  Steele,  directing 
payment  of  a  bill.    Aitken,  George,  Life  of  Steele,  I,  43  ff.    Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV. 
125,  127,  refers  to  Cutts'  arrival  from  Flanders  on  October  17. 

309  Other  than  military  affairs  will  be  referred  to  in  the  next  chapter. 
309a  Macaulay,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  IV,  380;  Sheppard,  E.,  The  Old  Royal  Palace  of 
Whitehall,  386. 

110  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  219,  227,  235. 

111  Ibid.,  IV,  260,  notes  that  "peace  is  as  good  as  concluded" ;  and  as  a  part 
of  the  sentence,  "Cutts  is  expected  to  return  soon."     Cutts  may  be  returning 
because  military  duties  are  over,  or  because  the  peace  negotiations  will  soon  be 
concluded. 

112  Ibid.,  IV,  272. 

113  Ibid.,  IV,  285. 

114  A  regiment,  known  as  Cutts'  regiment,  was  disbanded  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment after  the  conclusion  of  peace.    Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  487.     Cutts  had  been 
for  three  years,  however,  colonel  of  the  Coldstream  Guards. 


INTRODUCTION  XXV11 

counties  were  measures  preparatory  to  the  conflict.115  Even  after  the 
death  of  the  Spanish  King,  actual  conflict  was  deferred,  and  it  was 
July  26,  1701,  before  Lord  Cutts  went  to  Holland  to  serve  as  major 
general  under  the  Duke  of  Marlborough.116 

The  summer  and  fall  were  spent  in  various  diplomatic  maneuvers, 
and  late  in  November  Marlborough  returned  to  England  to  give  aid 
to  the  Tories.  In  his  absence  he  left  the  command  of  the  English 
army  in  Holland  for  the  winter  to  Major  General  Cutts,  with  full 
powers.117  In  March,  however,  he  was  relieved,  and  by  March  31 
was  back  in  England,  but  for  less  than  a  month.118 

The  campaign  of  1702  was  hindered  by  Dutch  stupidity,  and  it 
was  late  in  the  summer  before  anything  of  great  importance  was  accom- 
plished. In  August,  1702,  Venlo  surrendered.  In  the  capture  of  Fort 
St.  Michael,  one  of  the  protections  of  Venlo,  Major  General  Cutts 
had  played  a  conspicuous  part.  Cutts  held  a  council  of  the  officers 
of  the  attacking  force  and  outlined  his  plan — to  drive  away  the  enemy 
from  the  covert  way  and  so  prevent  them  from  dislodging  the  English 
workmen.  If  the  enemy  should  yield  readly,  the  English  troops  were 
to  jump  into  the  covert  way  and  pursue  the  enemy  at  any  cost.  The 
plan  succeeded ;  and  the  enemy  were  finally  compelled  to  surrender.119 

Cutts'  bravery  was  generally  commended.  Marlborough  reported : 
"My  Lord  Cutts  commanded  at  one  of  the  breaches;  and  the  English 
grenadiers  had  the  honor  of  being  the  first  to  enter  the  fort."120 
Echoing  public  opinion  probably,  Burnet  said  that  the  fort  "was  taken 
by  Lord  Cutts  in  so  gallant  a  manner  that  it  deserved  to  be  commended 
by  everybody".121  Henry  Guy  wrote  to  Robert  Harley :  "The  fort  of 
Venlo  is  taken  and  that  by  a  very  brave  action  of  my  Lord  Cutts".122 
And  a  contemporary  historian  commented  as  follows:  "The  most 
memorable  act  during  the  siege  [of  Venlo]  was  performed  by  Lord 
Cutts".123  And  Lord  Cutts  himself  wrote  none  to  modestly  to  Sec- 
retary Nottingham  as  follows :  "My  action  at  Fort  St.  Michael  I  will 
say  no  more  of  than  only  it  was  my  own  contrivance  and  execution, 
commanding  that  attack  in  chief.  It  was  successful,  and  produced 
good  and  quick  effects  by  occasioning  the  speedy  surrender  of  Venlo, 

™Ibid.,  IV,  648,  674. 

118  Ibid.,  V,  74.  It  had  first  been  reported  that  he  was  to  go  as  lieutenant 
general  (ibid.,  V,  65).  The  commission  is  dated  March  9,  1702.  State  Papers 
Dom.,  Entry  Book  170,  111. 

117  Histor.  AfSS.  Comm.,  15th  Report,  Append.,  Pt  1,  51. 

118  Luttrell,  op.  tit.,  V,  158,  167. 

"§  Parker,  Captain  Robert,  Memoirs,  1747,  86. 

120  Marlborough,  Dispatches,  September  21,  1702. 

m  Burnet,  op.  tit.,  V,  31. 

132  Histor  MSS.  Comm.,  15th  Report,  Append.,  Pt  1,  487. 

m  History  of  the  Reign  of  Queen  Anne  Digested  into  Annals,  1st  Year,  102. 


INTRODUCTION 


and  making  way  farther  successes;  and  it  met  with  general  approba- 
tion, for  the  world  has  made  more  noise  of  it  than  it  deserves.  I  had 
the  honor  to  command  brave  men;  I  had  the  fortune  to  take  my 
measure  right;  and  God  blessed  me  with  success".124 

Tho  Cutts  acted  bravely,  he  was  also  accused  of  issuing  rash  and 
even  incredible  orders.  Said  Captain  Parker  :  "All  thought  them  very 
rash  orders  and  contrary  to  the  rules  of  war  and  the  design  of  the 
thing.  .  .  .  Thus  were  the  unaccountable  orders  of  Cutts  as 
unaccountably  executed,  to  the  great  surprise  of  the  whole  army  and 
even  of  ourselves.  However,  had  not  several  unforeseen  accidents 
concurred,  not  a  man  of  us  could  have  escaped".125  Indeed,  Parker 
even  went  so  far  as  to  say,  in  the  same  place,  that  Cutts  had  the  glory 
of  the  whole  action  "though  he  never  stirred  out  of  the  trenches  till 
all  was  over".  But  Parker  runs  counter  in  these  statements  to  the 
implication  of  our  former  testimony  and  to  the  definite  statement  of 
Luttrell  that  the  English  forces  had  taken  the  citadel  of  Venlo,  with 
Lord  Cutts,  sword  in  hand,  at  their  head.126  It  is  possible  that  Parker's 
statement  is  prompted  by  jealousy. 

The  campaign  of  1702  ended,  Marlborough  returned  to  England, 
and  Lord  Cutts  was  again  left  in  command  of  the  English  forces  in 
Holland.127  As  further  evidence  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  him, 
and  probably  in  recognition  of  his  valor  at  Venlo,  he  was  on  February 
11,  1703,  made  a  lieutenant  general.127* 

The  campaign  of  1703  was  again  fruitless,  owing  to  the  persistent 
Dutch  interference  with  Marlborough's  plans.  As  no  great  battles 
were  fought  or  sieges  undertaken,  there  was  no  opportunity  for  the 
spectacularly  heroic  service  for  which  Lord  Cutts  was  noted.  Marl- 
borough  again  went  to  England  for  the  winter,  and  Cutts  again  stayed 
on  the  Continent,128  but  this  time  General  Churchill,  Marlborough's 
brother,  was  left  in  command  of  the  troops.129  Tho  no  reason  is 
assigned  for  the  change.  Marlborough's  natural  desire  to  advance  his 
brother  is  very  plausible.  A  furlough,  the  exact  length  of  which  is 

114  British  Museum  Additional  MSS.  29588;  quoted  in  Burton,  J.  H.,  The 
Reign  of  Queen  Anne,  and  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1885-6,  II,  193  ;  rotograph  copy 
also  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  library. 

u*  Parker,  ibid. 

06  Ibid.,  V,  215. 

™  Luttrell,  op  cit.,  V,  239. 

m«-  State  Papers  Dom.,  Entry  Book  170,  p.  128. 

™Histor  MSS.  Comm.,  15th  Report,  PL  4,  146. 

119  Coxe,  Life  of  Marlborough,  I,  142. 


INTRODUCTION  XXIX 

not  known,  was  marked  on  May  2  by  a  gift  from  Queen  Anne  of 
one  thousand  guineas.130  Soon  after  probably,  Lord  Cutts  returned 
to  his  command.131 

The  outstanding  engagement  in  1704  was,  of  course,  the  battle 
of  Blenheim  on  August  2.  Lord  Cutts  commanded  on  the  left  the 
division  of  the  British  which  advanced  early  in  the  battle  against  the 
village  of  Blenheim.  Repulsed  here,  toward  the  end  of  the  battle  he 
attacked  the  village  from  in  front — a  move  that  was  successful.132 
A  large  part  of  the  French  army  was  destroyed,  and  the  rest  com- 
pelled to  retreat.  Lord  Cutts  "had  a  large  share  in  the  success  and 
glory  of  the  day".133 

On  the  return  march,  Marlborough  was  delayed  by  the  siege  of 
a  stubborn  town,  and  Lord  Cutts  was  sent  forward  to  capture  Trier 
(Treves)  for  winter  quarters  for  the  army.134  This  accomplished  by 
October  18  (N.  S.),  he  returned  to  England,  after  "three  winters 
successively  in  these  parts".135 

Blenheim  was  destined  to  be  Lord  Cutts'  last  great  fight.  On 
March  23,  1705,  the  Queen  appointed  him  commander-in-chief  of  the 
royal  forces  in  Ireland,  with  a  salary  of  six  thousand  pounds  a  year.138 
This  seems  like  a  promotion,  but  only  when  we  forget  the  man 
involved.  Lord  Cutts  was  preeminently  a  fighting  soldier,  not  a  bar- 
racks soldier;  and  his  removal  from  the  scene  of  battle  would,  as  one 
biographer  suggested,  "break  his  heart".137 

Why  then  was  he  placed  out  of  the  way  of  action?  Less  than 
a  year  before  the  Queen  had  shown  her  favor  by  giving  him  a  thou- 
sand guineas  (see  above).  Moreover,  Lord  Cutts  was  reported 
to  be  a  favorite  of  Maryborough's.138  Cutts,  too,  was  a  Whig,  and 
the  Whigs  were  in  the  first  half  of  Anne's  reign  growing  in  power. 
But  Cutts  had  in  1701  professed  "great  affection  and  honor"  for  Har- 
ley,  the  Tory  leader;  and  in  1704  he  thanked  Harley  for  promising  to 
be  his  friend.139  Perhaps  this  friendship  with  a  Tory  was  obnoxious 

130Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  420.  In  letters  to  Secretary  Nottingham  in  1702  (British 
Museum  Add.  MSS.  29588  and  15895)  Cutts  had  expressed  the  hope  that  he 
would  not  be  forgotten  when  rewards  were  distributed  for  services  at  Venlo. 
Perhaps  the  gift  is  delayed  recognition. 

131  Ibid.,  V,  419. 

182  Alison,  A.,  Life  of  Marlborough,  88,  97.     Coxe,  ibid.,  I,  191  ff. 

133  The  Compleat  History  of  Europe  for  1707,  ibid. 

134  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  V,  476. 

115  Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  15th  Report,  Append.,  Pt.  I,  146. 
136  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  V,  536;  Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  7th  Report,  Append.,  246; 
Nichols,  op.  cit.,  ibid. 

187  Nichols,  op.  cit.,  ibid. 

**  Walpole,  Horace,  Letters,  III,  260,  265,  285. 

™Histor^MSS.  Comm.,  15th  Report,  Pt.  4,  23;  Pt.  1,  47. 


XXX  INTRODUCTION 

to  some  of  Cutts'  Whig  friends.  Possibly,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had 
alienated  some  of  his  Tory  friends  by  active  and  vigorous  opposition 
in  October,  1704,  to  "tacking"  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act  to  the 
land  tax  bill  on  the  ground  that  stoppage  of  supplies  consequent  upon 
the  failure  of  the  bill  would  break  up  the  Grand  Alliance.140  He  had 
thus  perhaps  displeased  both  parties  and  had  made  for  himself  enemies 
in  each.  Moreover,  at  heart  a  Whig  as  Queen  Anne  was  at  heart  a 
stanch  Tory,  probably  he  was  never  altogether  in  her  favor.  It  is 
possible  too  that  there  is  something  in  Morant's  suggestion  that  he  was 
sent  to  Ireland  because  he  had  not  been  "obsequious  to  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough".140a  The  blow  was  perhaps  not  unexpected  by  Cutts, 
for  in  his  letters  to  Secretary  Nottingham  he  seemed  feverish  in  his 
anxiety  to  make  the  best  impression  upon  the  Queen. 140b  At  any 
rate,  whatever  the  reasons  actually  were,  Godolphin  wrote  to  the  Duke 
of  Ormonde,  the  lord  lieutenant  of  Ireland,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Queen  needed  Lieutenant  General  Erie  in  England,  and  that  Lord 
Cutts  would  be  sent  in  his  stead.141 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES,  SECOND  MARRIAGE,  AND 

REVERSES 

By  1693,  Lord  Cutts  had  gained  some  reputation  as  a  poet;  he 
had  won  a  name  as  a  valiant  soldier;  in  the  same  year  he  set  about 
to  seek  political  office.  After  various  rumors  that  he  would  be  made 
governor  of  Portsmouth,  he  was  in  April,  1693,  appointed  "captain 
and  governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  in  place  of  Sir  Robert  Holmes,  Knt, 
deceased".142  He  was  to  have  five  hundred  pounds  a  year  for  his 
table;143  the  salary  or  income  from  rents  is  not  stated,  but  if  it  was 
equally  generous,  he  was  a  well-paid  official.  Sir  William  Stephens 
was  appointed  his  deputy  governor.143 

It  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  Cutts'  training  as  a  soldier  would 
lead  him  to  take  charge  of  affairs  even  to  the  point  of  officiousness. 
And  as  a  matter  of  fact,  within  a  few  weeks  he  had  removed  an  officer 
from  the  government  of  Cowes  and  given  the  position  to  an  officer  in 
his  own  regiment — possibly  trumping  up  some  flimsy  charge  as  an 

140  Leadom,  Political  History  of  England,  66. 

14°a  Morant,  Philip,  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  Essex  County,  1768,  II, 
590. 

14°t>Brit.  Mus.  Add.  MSS.  29588,  15895. 

m  Hist or.  MSS.  Comm.,  7th  Report,  Pt.  1,  779. 

142  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1693,  102. 

143Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  Ill,  73.  In  1780,  about  a  century  later,  the  income  from 
rents,  etc.,  was  670  pounds.  Worsley,  Sir  R.,  History  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  1781, 
Ixviii. 


INTRODUCTION  XXXI 

excuse.144  Before  the  year  was  out,  he  had  become  "extremely  un- 
popular", and  the  citizens  of  the  island  were  up  in  arms  against  him.145 
In  a  petition  to  Parliament  they  accused  him  of  trying  to  control  elec- 
tions and  of  punishing  those  that  opposed  his  interests  by  quartering 
soldiers  upon  them,  putting  officers  out  of  the  militia,  disfranchising 
several  burgesses  of  Newtown,  and  even  in  one  case  imprisoning  a 
clergyman  for  two  months.146 

Such  high-handed  procedure  was  bound  to  breed  enemies,  and 
he  acknowledged  that  he  had  them  among  the  citizens  of  Wight.147 
At  one  time  they  apparently  tried  to  get  rid  of  him  by  having  him 
appointed  one  of  the  lord  justices  of  Ireland.  Sir  Robert  Worsley 
seemed  to  be  a  leading  opponent,148  and  Cutts  was  shrewd  enough  to 
try  to  win  his  favor  in  1695  by  urging  Worsley's  election  as  chief 
burgess  of  Newtown.  Some  kind  of  legal  proceedings  were  under  way 
in  1696.  The  quarrels  dragged  on  until  1697;  early  in  that  year  a 
treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Westminster,  whereby  a  sincere  and 
lasting  peace  was  to  be  established.  Each  side  seemed  to  concede 
something.149 

But  Lord  Cutts  was  a  soldier  and  relished  a  fight  either  on  the 
field  of  battle  or  of  politics ;  for  not  five  months  later  he  wrote  humor- 
ously to  a  friend  at  the  time  that  the  war  on  the  Continent  was 
closing :  "if  God  blesses  me  with  life,  I  shall  certainly  make  my  next 
Campagne  in  the  Isle  of  Wight".  That  he  did  is  proved  by  a  quarrel 
brought  about  by  Cutts'  swearing  in  one  man — likely  one  well-disposed 
to  Cutts — as  mayor  of  Newport  when  the  burgesses  had  wanted  an- 
other! The  affair  reached  the  law  courts,  and  a  special  verdict  was 
rendered  on  May  7,  1700.150 

The  letters  of  Cutts  to  Dudley  reveal  Cutts  as  a  shrewd  politician. 
Even  tho  away  from  Wight  much  of  the  time,  he  seems  to  have 
attempted  to  keep  his  hands  on  everything.  He  directs  his  lieutenant 
governor  to  send  a  certain  Hope  "a  Cordial"  and  "kind,  endearing, 
respectful  words" ;  to  "make  much  of  all  their  friends",  and  "to  speak 
kindly  and  heartily  to  them" ;  and  to  give  fifty  pounds  to  the  poor  of 

144Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  Ill,  99. 
143  Worsley,  op.  cit.,  141. 

146  Ibid.,  141,  161. 

147  This  information  and  many  other  items  concerning  his  governorship  of 
Wight  come  from  a  collection  of  letters  written  by  Cutts  to  Dudley,  his  lieu- 
tenant governor,  to  be  found  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  1885-6,  II,  171-199,  edited  by  Robert  C  Winthrop,  jr.     Hereafter  any 
statement  in  this  section  not  otherwise  accredited  is  to  be  referred  to  these 
letters. 

***  Worsley,  op.  cit.,  cxvii. 
1-  Ibid.,  cxvii-iii. 
"•Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  462. 


XXX11  INTRODUCTION 

Newport.  On  the  King's  birthday  he  provided  wine  and  other  liquors 
for  the  mob  to  drink.151  There  was  to  be  kept  a  black  list  of  those 
who  failed  to  sign  a  certain  document.  In  1695,  he  slated  five  persons 
for  Parliament  from  boroughs  of  Wight,  only  one  of  whom,  however — 
himself — was  elected.152 

Within  a  year  after  his  appointment,  Sir  William  Stephens  was 
replaced  as  lieutenant  governor  by  Joseph  Dudley.153  Lord  Cutts 
found  Dudley  a  useful  deputy.  Repeatedly  he  gave  Dudley  detailed 
directions  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  in  political  and  private  affairs: 
who  was  to  be  elected  burgess;  how  to  meet  certain  persons;  to  "let 
the  corporation  have  venison  as  is  usual";  to  pay  his  brewer;  to  put 
off  his  creditors;  to  bottle  his  wine;  to  get  prawns  for  a  dinner  for 
Roman  Catholics.  More  than  once  Cutts  sharply  reproved  Dudley 
for  what  he  considered  unwarranted  conduct  and  reminded  him  of  his 
obligations  to  his  superior,  and  his  duties  to  the  office. 

In  June,  1693,  occurred  an  event  which  prompted  Cutts  to  seek 
the  vice-admiralty  of  Wight.  Some  French  Protestants  brought  a 
vessel  to  a  port  in  Wight  after  they  had  killed  the  captain.154  The 
vessel  represented  a  good  sum  of  money  and  Cutts  naturally  claimed 
possession.  His  claim  and  his  appeal  were  denied  on  the  ground  that 
the  vessel  was  a  "perquisite  of  the  Lord  High  Admiral".  Since  it 
was  the  general  rule  for  the  admiral  and  the  vice-admiral  to  divide 
such  perquisites,  Lord  Cutts  sought  for  himself  the  vice-admiralty,  and 
in  1696  and  1697  spoke  confidently  of  getting  it.155  There  is,  however, 
no  record  that  he  was  successful. 

Upon  Queen  Anne's  accession  to  the  throne  in  1702,  Cutts  was 
anxious  about  his  reappointment  as  governor  of  Wight,  for  in  a 
letter  to  Nottinghom  on  June  1,  1702,  he  wrote  as  follows :  "I  am 
barbarously  us'd  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  affaire,  &  without  her  Majesty's 
Justice  and  Favour  shall  not  be  able  to  serve".156  It  may  be,  too,  that 

151  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1695,  November. 
152Worsley,  op.  cit.,  ex. 

153  Sir  William  had  incurred  Cutts'  displeasure  by  failing  to  sign  a  certain 
document  (Worsley,  op.  cit.,  161).    Joseph  Dudley  had  been  born  in  Massachu- 
setts in  1647  and  was  therefore  fourteen  years  the  senior  of  Cutts.    How  or  when 
they  became  acquainted  is  not  known.     As  Mr.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  jr.,  inti- 
mates, tho  at  first  sight  there  was  little  in  common  between  the  impetuous  soldier 
and  the  serious  Dudley   (he  had  been  trained  for  the  ministry),  the  fact  that 
both  were  ambitious  for  place  was  a  sufficient  tie.    Largely  perhaps  thru  Cutts' 
influence,  Dudley  was  appointed  governor  of  Massachusetts  in  1702.     Frequent 
mention  of   Cutts'  attempts  to  promote   Dudley  is  made  in  the  collection  of 
thirty-two  interesting  and  often  personal  letters  before  referred  to.    Mr.  Robert 
C.  Winthrop,  the  editor,  tells  of  the  discovery  of  the  letters  among  his  father's 
papers.    A  copy  of  a  portrait  of  Dudley  is  also  reproduced  in  the  Proceedings^ 

154  LuttrelL  op.  cit.,  Ill,  123. 

155  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  1693,  229,  308. 
158  Brit.  Mus.  Add.  MSS.,  29588. 


INTRODUCTION  XXX111 

at  this  time  the  less  desirable  post  of  the  governorship  of  Jamaica  was 
offered  him  in  place  of  Wight,  and  from  which  he  desired  to  be 
excused.  However,  his  concern  was  needless,  for  he  was  reappointed 
governor  of  Wight  on  June  26,  1702,  and  retained  the  office  until  his 
death.157 

Lord  Cutts  had  set  himself  another  political  goal :  membership  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  His  opportunity  came  in  December,  1693, 
with  the  death  of  the  member  from  Cambridge.158  There  were  at 
least  two  candidates,  but  Cutts  was  elected  by  thirteen  votes,159  and 
seated.  His  opponent,  Sir  Rushout  Cullen  (or  Cullomb),  however, 
charged  fraud,  and  a  committee  of  the  House  investigated  and  reported 
in  favor  of  Cullen.  The  House  did  not  support  the  committee  and 
Cutts  retained  his  seat.160 

Cutts  sat  in  the  House  from  this  date  until  his  death.  In  the 
four  succeeding  Parliaments  he  was  chosen  from  Newport  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight  as  well  as  from  Cambridge ;  but  in  the  last  two  in  which  he  sat — 
elected  in  the  first  and  the  fourth  years  of  Anne — he  was  returned 
from  Newport  only.161 

The  only  time  in  which  he  has  succeeded  in  making  his  name 
even  faintly  memorable  as  a  statesman  is  in  connection  with  tacking 
the  Occasional  Conformity  bill  to  the  land  tax  bill  in  October,  1704. 
He  opposed  the  "rider"  on  the  ground  that  a  division  between  the  two 
houses  would  be  an  advantage  to  the  French  equivalent  to  our  victory 
at  Blenheim.  Cutts'  arguments  prevailed  and  the  bill  was  beaten.162 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Lord  Cutts  had  been  married  in 
December,  1690,  to  Mrs.  Trevor,  a  widow  (see  above,  p.  xx).  That 
the  marriage  was  not  altogether  happy  is  suggested  by  a  sentence  in 
a  letter  from  George  Montagu,  a  grandson  of  Lady  Cutts  by  a  former 
marriage,  to  Horace  Walpole.163  "Our  Magdalen  was  virtuously  poxed 
by  her  husband",  Montagu  wrote,  "and  had  but  little  time  to  repent  her 
matrimony".  Lady  Cutts  died  on  February  19,  1693,  a  little  over  two 
years  after  their  marriage.164  Her  death  was  a  double  blow  to  Lord 
Cutts,  for  her  jointure  of  twenty-five  hundred  pounds  went  to  the  next 
heir.164 

157  State  Papers  Domestic  Entry  Book  170,  p.  40;  Worsley,  op.  cit.t  142. 
188  Commons  Journal,  XI,  27. 
"•Luttrell,  op.  tit.,  Ill,  244. 

180  Commons  Journal,  XI,  46-47,  92;  Members  of  Parliament,  Parts  I  and  11, 
3  vols.    Cullen  was  at  last  successful  in  1697! 

141  Members  of  Parliament,  under  the  appropriate  years,  1693-1705. 

10  Parliamentary  Debates,  V,  361. 

MHistor.  MSS.  Comm.,  5th  Report,  Append.,  116. 

'"Luttrell,  op.  tit.,  Ill,  41. 


XXXIV  INTRODUCTION 

Five  months  later  it  was  rumored  that  he  was  to  be  married 
to  Lord  Mohun's  sister,  maid  of  honor  to  the  Queen.165  The  rumor 
may  have  been  only  a  cruel  falsehood,  for  it  was  more  than  four  years 
afterwards  when  he  married  again,  and  not  Lady  Mohun,  but  Elizabeth, 
the  only  daughter  of  Sir  Henry  Pickering  of  Cambridgeshire.  Miss 
Pickering  was  about  seventeen  years  old  and  worth  fourteen  hundred 
pounds  a  year.  The  wedding  took  place  on  February  6,  1697.  In 
November  of  the  same  year  she  died  in  childbirth.166  Considerable 
notice  was  taken  of  her  death;  funeral  sermons  were  preached  by 
Bishop  Francis  Atterbury,  J.  Provoste,  and  William  Wigan ;  John  Hop- 
kins and  Nahum  Tate  wrote  memorial  poems.  Bishop  Atterbury 
praised  her  for  her  great  piety,  spirituality,  and  sweetness  of  life,  and 
held  her  up  as  a  noble  example.167 

A  contemporary  writer  has  stated  that  Lord  Cutts  married  a 
third  time,  and  that  his  wife  survived  him,  but  there  is  no  further 
evidence  of  this  marriage.168 

His  wife's  death  was  the  first  of  a  series  of  misfortunes. 
Early  in  December  Lord  Cutts  was  taken  ill  with  a  fever,169  his  con- 
stitution weakened  probably  by  his  many  wounds  and  worriment  over 
his  wife's  death  and  his  own  debt.  Again  in  March  of  the  next  year, 
1698,  he  was,  as  he  himself  said,  "extream  ill  (and  if  my  mind  be  not 
settled  one  way  or  the  other  soon)  I  cannot  live".170 

The  truth  is  that  he  was  beginning  to  pay  the  penalty  of  his 
spendthrift  habits.  His  debts  were  £17,500;  he  owed  money  to  trades- 
men, military  agents,  his  steward,  and  of  course  his  sister.  He  had 
all  sorts  of  excuses  to  offer  for  his  debts — gifts  to  William  before  the 
Revolution,  accumulated  interest,  decrease  in  rents,  fees  for  securing 
loans,  and  small  returns  for  his  offices.171 

Cutts  was  making  a  desperate  effort  to  clear  himself  of  this 
debt.  In  order  to  get  ready  money  he  had  sold  for  eight  thousand 
pounds — a  sacrifice  price — the  Carryl  estate  worth  two  thousand  pounds 
a  year.171  In  February,  1698,  Cutts,  Sir  Henry  Pickering,  his  father- 
in-law,  and  Joseph  Dudley,  his  lieutenant  governor,  developed  an 
elaborate  plan  to  profit  by  making  coins  for  the  colonies,  but  the  present 

™Ibid.,  Ill,  143. 

186  Ibid.,  IV,  180,  310.    Provoste,  J.,  Funeral  Sermon  on  the  Death  of  Elisa- 
beth, Lady  Cutts,  1698,  states  that  she  was  eighteen  years  old  at  her  death. 

187  Atterbury,  Francis,  Sermons,  I,  6  (text  Eccl.  7,  2). 
168  The  Monthly  Miscellany,  I,  50. 

""Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  313. 

170  Letter  to  William,  dated  Kensington,   March  17,  1698,  in   Trans.  Essex 
Arch.  Soc.,  ibid. 

171  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  IV,  303. 


INTRODUCTION  XXXV 

patentees  maintained  that  the  applicants  would  infringe  upon  their 
rights  and  the  permission  was  probably  withheld  from  Cutts  and  his 
fellow-petitioners.172 

As  a  last  resort,  Cutts  turned  to  William.  He  had  served  the 
King  faithfully  and  loyally  for  years ;  despite  the  loyal  service,  he  was 
poorer  in  1698  than  he  had  been  in  1685 ;  he  had  the  King's  long- 
standing promise  to  help  clear  him  of  debt.  The  King  had  done  very 
much  for  others ;  all  that  Cutts  asked  was  an  estate  in  Ireland  of  three 
or  four  thousand  pounds.  "I  could  never  think  that  I  should  be  ill 
used  for  trusting  to  you,  Sir,  and  for  waiting  with  patience.  .  .  . 
My  debts  are  pressing  and  without  payment  I  must  go  to  prison  or 
retire.  .  .  But  I  submit  all  and  only  beg  that  I  may  speedily  know 
your  Majesty's  resolution.  .  .  For  God's  sake,  Sir,  don't  refuse 
to  speak  with  me  whatever  becomes  of  me".171 

If  William  gave  him  the  estates  or  a  sum  of  money,  the  record  is 
missing.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  spent  any 
time  in  jail.  The  probability  is  that  just  as  before  1698,  so  after 
1698,  he  was  able  to  evade  his  debts  and  secure  in  some  way  best  known 
to  chronic  debtors  a  temporary  respite  from  the  debts — temporary 
because  he  was  still  "vastly  in  debt"  at  the  time  of  his  death.178 

VI 

COMMANDER  IN  IRELAND,  LAST  DAYS,  CONTEMPORARY 

ESTEEM 

Lord  Cutts  communicated  late  in  March,  1705,  with  the  Duke  of 
Ormonde,  the  lord  lieutenant  of  Ireland,  and  promised  that  as  the  new 
commander  he  would  do  his  best  to  serve  and  please  his  Grace.174 
He  was  delayed  in  taking  up  his  duties,  and  it  was  June  14  before  he 
landed  in  Dublin.176  A  week  before  he  arrived  he  was  made  a  lord 
justice  of  Ireland177 — a  commissioner  with  vice-regal  authority.  In 
August  he  was  given  command  of  the  royal  regiment  of  dragoons.178 

A  veteran  soldier  direct  from  the  front,  he  was  not  long  in  finding 
weaknesses  in  the  army  administration  in  Ireland.  He  urged  new 
adequate  equipment,  more  active  recruiting,  greater  attention  to  duty 
on  the  part  of  officers,  and  similar  important  reforms.  These  efforts 

"'Acts  of  Privy  Council,  1680-1720,  321;  Cal.  State  Papers,  American,  99, 
100,  109,  125,  127. 

171  Histor,  MSS.  Comm.,  7th  Report,  246. 

"*  Unpublished  Report  of  the  Histor.  MSS.  Comm.;  see  the  Preface.  Infor- 
mation in  this  section  otherwise  unaccredited  comes  from  this  Report 

174  Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  15th  Report,  Append.,  Pt.  4,  32. 

177  Luttrell,  op.  cit.,  V,  560. 

mlbid.f  V,  586. 


XXXVI  INTRODUCTION 

were  not  lost  upon  the  Duke  of  Ormonde,  for  he  expressed  his  satis- 
faction with  Cutts'  attempt  to  better  the  service. 

Enemies  were  responsible  for  the  removal  of  Lord  Cutts  to  Ire- 
land, and  they  continued  active  during  the  remaining  years  of  his  life. 
Some  of  them  he  and  Ormonde  had  in  common.  Cutts  referred  fre- 
quently to  those  who  were  trying  to  injure  him  and  was  apparently 
solicitous  lest  they  should  work  him  harm  with  the  Duke. 

Cutts'  constitution  had  apparently  been  undermined  by  his  attacks 
of  illness  in  1697  and  1698.  The  waters  at  Tunbridge  Wells  had, 
he  thought,  worked  a  "miraculous  change"  in  him  in  August  1699.179 
But  the  climate  of  Ireland  did  not  agree  with  him,  for  six  months 
after  his  arrival  he  was  ill  with  fever.  From  that  time  on  he  was  not 
wholly  well.  He  was  so  seriously  ill  in  July,  1706,  that  his  death  was 
reported.180  A  change  of  physicians  in  October  seemed  to  help  him, 
but  the  holidays  brought  a  return  of  his  old  malady.  He  looked  for 
the  spring  to  come  and  bring  relief.  On  January  24,  another  attack 
seized  him.  It  was  at  first  thought  not  to  be  serious,  and  on  January 
25,  he  was  able  to  write  to  the  Duke  of  Ormonde.  But  he  grew  worse 
and  died  in  Dublin  on  January  26,  1707. 

Debt  hounded  him  to  the  very  end,  for  a  gossiping  writer  has  left 
on  record  that  Lord  Cutts  "died  vastly  in  debt,  and  his  aides-de-camp 
were  dubbed  ten  pounds  a  piece  to  bury  him".182  Surely  a  miserable 
end  for  a  proud  man! 

Three  days  later,  on  January  29,  Lord  Cutts  was  buried  in  Christ 
Church  Cathedral,  Dublin.  There  is,  however,  no  mention  of  the 
burial  in  the  records  of  the  Cathedral,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 
edifice  at  the  present  time  to  indicate  his  resting  place,183  and  even  in 
1762  Horace  Walpole  and  George  Montagu,  a  grandson  of  Lord  Cutts' 
first  wife  by  a  former  marriage,  were  uncertain  of  it.184 

Lord  Cutts  had  made  his  will  in  1701.  It  was  presented  for  pro- 
bate to  the  Prerogative  Court  of  Canterbury  in  London  early  in  Febru- 
ary, 1707.  By  its  terms,  his  sister,  Joanna  Cutts,  and  Mrs.  Dorothy 
Pickering,  probably  a  sister-in-law,  were  made  executrixes.  They  were 
directed  to  sell  his  estates  in  Cambridge  and  Sussex,  at  least  six  in 
number,  and  with  the  money  received  meet  his  various  obligations.  To 

™Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  ibid.,  191. 

™Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  15th  Report,  Append.,  Pt.  4,  320. 

182  Histor.  MSS.  Comm.,  7th  Report,  Append.,  246. 

188  Le  Neve,  Peter.  Monumcnta  Anglican*,  1717,  IV,  120;  Notes  and  Queries, 
5th  series,  x,  498;  and  a  personal  letter  from  Dean  James  W.  Matsh,  Christ 
Church  Cathedral,  Dublin.  Le  Neve's  authority  is  held  to  be  unquestioned. 

184  Walpole,  Horace,  Letters,  III,  491. 


INTRODUCTION  XXXV11 

Mrs.  Pickering  he  left  all  his  china  and  a  hundred  pounds  for  mourn- 
ing ;  to  each  of  two  nieces  he  left  a  hundred  pounds ;  and  to  his  sister 
he  left  the  rest  of  his  estate.185 

He  died  without  issue  and  the  line  became  extinct.186  He  was 
survived,  however,  by  an  unmarried  sister  Joanna,  who  had  been  with 
him  in  Dublin.  In  1714  she  petitioned  the  Treasury  for  payment  of  a 
sum  of  money  which  she  said  her  brother  had  spent  on  Carisbrooke 
Castle.  Tho  no  regular  vouchers  were  discovered,  the  Treasurer  was 
inclined  to  "move  the  Queen  for  something  as  of  her  Majesty's 
bounty".187 

At  least  three  portraits  of  Cutts  are  extant.  Two  are  in  the 
Combination  Room  at  St.  Catharine's  Cambridge,  one  representing 
him  in  youth,  and  the  other  at  middle  age;188  the  third,  by  W.  W. 
Wissing,  representing  him  as  a  young  man,  is  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery,  London.189 

There  is  universal  agreement  among  his  contemporaries  that  Cutts 
was  a  brave  and  even  rash  soldier.190  That  he  was  a  wise  and  far- 
sighted  leader  is  not  so  certain.  In  commenting  upon  the  capture  of 
Venlo,  Captain  Parker  criticised  very  severely  the  actions  of  Lord 
Cutts  from  the  point  of  military  tactics.191  An  anonymous  critic 
referred  to  him  "as  brave  and  brainless  as  the  sword  he  wears".192 

186  A  copy  of  the  will  may  be  found  in  the  library  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

188  Trans.  Essex  Arch.  Soc.,  ibid. 

™  Calendar  of  Treasury  Papers,  1708-14,  576-7.  The  committee  reported 
that  they  believed  that  Lord  Cutts  had  spent  over  seven  hundred  pounds  in 
repairs. 

188  Browne,  G.  F.,  History  of  St.  Catharine  College,  164.  Owing  to  the  war 
the  portraits  have  been  stored  away  and  I  have  been  unable  to  get  photographs 
of  them  or  information  about  them. 

18B  It  is  Number  515,  and  measures  29^  by  24  inches.  Cust,  Lionel,  National 
Portrait  Gallery,  I,  203.  The  portrait  must  have  been  done  before  1687,  for 
Wissing  died  in  that  year.  He  often  repeated  the  Duke  of  Monmouth's  por- 
trait, and  was  sent  into  Holland  to  paint  William's  and  Mary's.  There  was 
ample  opportunity  therefore  for  Cutts  to  sit  for  Wissing.  There  is  likely  a 
fourth  likeness,  for  in  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  1913-14,  V,  2533;  and 
VI,  2633,  are  reproduced  the  Wissing  portrait,  and  a  reproduction  from  a 
mezzotint  from  life  by  P.  Schenck,  an  Amsterdam  engraver.  The  present  loca- 
tion of  the  mezzotint  is  not  given  by  the  editor.  As  the  inscription  referred 
to  below  proves,  the  likeness  was  made  after  the  accession  of  Anne  and  so 
represents  Cutts  in  his  forties.  Over  the  likeness  is  his  motto:  "Sudore  et 
sanguine".  Under  it  are  these  words:  "Jean  Lord  Cutts,  Baro  de  Gowran, 
Colonel  des  Gardes  angloises  et  Lieutenant-General  des  Armees  de  la  Reine, 
Captaine  General  et  Governeur  de  1'Isle  de  Wight.  Conetable  du  Chateau 
Royale,  de  Carisbrooke,  etc.,  etc."  According  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  Proc.  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.,  ibid.,  there  exists  an  engraving  representing  Cutts  on  his  deathbed, 
surrounded  by  Apollo,  Minerva,  and  Cupid  weeping. 

Lord  Cutts'  arms  are  described  in  Burke,  Extinct  Peerage,  680. 

™Compleat  Hist,  of  Europe  for  1707,  ibid.:  Burnet,  History  of  His  Own 
Time.  II,  Bk.  VII.  325;  John  Macky,  in  Swift,  Works,.  1883,  XII,  208-29;  etc. 

191  Parker,  Robert,  Memoirs,  86. 

1MMackinnon,  Coldstreant  Guards,  II,  306. 


XXXV111  INTRODUCTION 

As  for  his  other  qualities,  the  following  may  be  quoted  from  John 
Macky,  who  summarized  many  of  the  characters  of  Queen  Anne's 
court:  "He  hath  abundance  of  wit,  but  was  too  much  seized  with 
vanity  and  self-conceit;  he  is  affable,  familiar,  and  very  brave".193 
Swift  added  a  characteristic  comment :  "The  vainest  old  fool  alive".193 
Cutts  lost  the  honor  that  was  due  to  many  brave  actions  of  his  by 
talking  too  much  of  them".194  Cutts  had  the  doubtful  fame  of  being 
elsewhere  the  object  of  Swift's  attack.  Swift  had  for  some  reason 
a  particular  dislike  for  Cutts  and  wrote  in  1705  a  fifty-six  line  lampoon, 
"The  Description  of  a  Salamander"195 — the  salamander  being  a  nick- 
name given  to  Cutts  for  his  fearlessness  in  the  face  of  fire.  Swift 
finds  in  the  salamander  characteristics  also  to  be  found  in  Cutts.  The 
lampoon  is  disgusting — "so  dull  and  so  nauseously  scurrilous",  accord- 
ing to  Macaulay,  "that  Ward  or  Gildon  would  have  been  ashamed 
of  it".196  Lord  Cutts  was  probably  not  a  paragon,  but  neither  was 
he  the  figure  that  Swift's  vitriolic  pen  represented  him  to  be.  There 
is,  indeed,  reason  to  believe  that  he  was  better  than  the  average  courtier 
of  the  times;  and  there  is  no  question  about  his  possession  of  certain 
admirable  qualities  of  character.  A  few  lines  from  the  lampoon  follow :: 
"To  paint  a  hero,  we  inquire 

For  something  that  will  conquer  fire. 

Would  you  describe  Turenne  or  Trump  ? 

Think  of  a  bucket  or  a  pump. 

Are  these  too  low  ? — then  find  out  grander, 

Call  my  Lord  Cutts  a  Salamander. 

So  when  the  war  has  raised  a  storm 

I've  seen  a  snake  in  human  form 

All  stain'd  with  infamy  and  vice, 

Leap  from  the  'dunghill  in  a  trice 

Burnish  and  make  a  gaudy  show 

Became  a  general,  peer,  and  beau, 

Till  peace  has  made  the  sky  serene, 

Then  shrink  into  its  hole  again. 

'All  this  we  grant — why  then,  look  yonder, 

Sure  that  must  be  a  Salamander !'  " 

Several  years  after  her  brother's  death,  Joanna  Cutts  complained 
to  Robert  Harley,  the  lord  treasurer,  that  Swift  had  abused  her 
brother;  but  Swift  replied  that  he  "would  never  regard  com- 
plaints".1964 

Of  his  reputation  as  a  poet,  I  shall  speak  in  the  next  section. 

1M  Swift,  ibid. 
194  Bui-net,  ibid. 

198  Swift,  Works,  XIV,  63. 

199  Macaulay,  ibid.,  IV,  471,  note. 
""a  Swift,  Works,  II,  283. 


INTRODUCTION  XXXIX 

VII 

POETRY,  AND  RELATIONS  TO  WRITERS 

John  Cutts'  first  poem,  La  Muse  de  Cavalier,  was  published  in 
November,  1685,  but  according  to  the  poem  itself,  he  already  had  some 
reputation  as  a  writer  of  verse.  When  he  began  to  write  or  under 
what  influence,  we  can  only  guess. 

As  John  seems  to  be  the  first  member  of  the  family  who  took 
any  active  interest  in  letters,  we  can  not  look  to  any  family  tradition 
as  an  encouragement  to  write.  Nor  was  his  college,  St.  Catharine's, 
likely  to  offer  any  strong  incentive,  for  it  was  particularly  interested  in 
preparing  men  for  the  church.197  But  the  university  itself  had  been 
earlier  in  the  century  a  "hotbed  of  poetry",  and  almost  all  the  poets 
of  the  earlier  generation  had  received  their  education  at  Cambridge; 
among  them  Kynaston,  Herbert,  Herrick,  Crashaw,  Quarles,  Suckling, 
Stanley,  Milton,  and  Cowley.  The  zeal  for  poetry  doubtless  continued 
after  these  men  had  gone,  and  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  believe  that 
Cutts  began  to  write  verses  while  at  the  university,  just  as  others  had 
done. 

Cutts  left  Cambridge  apparently  ^ithout  his  degree,  as  we  have 
seen,  and  came  up  to  London.  In  some  way,  perhaps  thru  his  interest 
in  his  country's  welfare,  as  a  biographer  has  suggested,  tho  probably 
not  without  some  recommendations,  he  found  friends  in  Lord  Russell, 
Algernon  Sidney,  and  the  Earl  of  Leicester.198  These  friendships 
were  undoubtedly  important.  The  Earl  of  Leicester  was  a  patron  of 
literature  and  entertained  weekly  at  his  home  at  Sheen,  near  London, 
the  literary  men  of  the  day.199  Lady  Dorothy  Sidney,  whom  Waller 
addressed  in  his  earlier  poems  as  Sacharissa,  and  with  whom  he  was 
intimate  all  his  life,  was  a  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester  and  Algernon 
Sidney.  Either  thru  these  weekly  receptions  or  thru  acquaintance  with 
the  Sidneys,  or  both,  Cutts  may  have  become  acquainted  with  Waller, 
who  knew  the  aspiring  poet  well  enough  and  cared  sufficiently  for 
him  to  commend  Cutts'  verses  on  "Wisdom".  However,  it  is  really 
not  necessary  thus  to  limit  the  ways  in  which  Cutts  became  acquainted 
with  Waller,  for  seventeenth  century  London  was  small,  and  a  person 
of  any  standing  would  find  the  access  to  society  easy.  It  was  possibly 
at  this  time,  too,  that  Cutts  became  acquainted  with  Monmouth,  and 
thru  him,  with  the  Duchess,  who  was  a  distinguished  patron  of  poetry, 

191  Mullinger,  J.  Bass,  A  History  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  58. 

88  The  Earl  of  Essex,  an  intimate  of  this  group,  had  been  born  only  twelve 
miles  from  Arkesden,  Cutts'  birthplace,  and  later  lived  in  Herts  only  thirty 
miles  from  Arkesden;  it  is  possible  that  Cutts  may  have  known  Essex  and 
have  gained  an  entrance  to  the  group  thru  the  Earl. 

"Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  LII,  234  ff. 


xl  INTRODUCTION 

an  early  friend  of  Dryden,200  and  later  a  friend  of  Cutts.  Lady 
Russell,  the  wife  of  Lord  Russell,  was  for  years  intimate  with 
Princess  Mary;  and  it  may  well  be  that  thru  Lady  Russell,  as  well 
as  thru  Monmouth,  Cutts  received  welcome  in  1685  at  Princess  Mary's 
court  at  the  Hague  and  later  found  her  a  patron  of  his  talent.  Finally, 
Sir  William  Temple,  who  as  ambassador  to  the  Hague  had  become 
intimate  with  William,  was  in  touch  with  Algernon  Sidney ;  and  Lady 
Temple,  formerly  Dorothy  Osborne,  was  in  constant  correspondence 
with  the  Princess.201 

According  to  the  current  practice,  some  of  Cutts'  verses  likely 
circulated  in  manuscript  before  their  publication,  for  at  the  date  of  his 
first  published  poem,  he  already  had  a  reputation  as  a  writer  of  verse 
as  well  as  that  of  a  soldier ;  and  it  was  in  reply  to  an  anonymous  critic 
that  he  addressed  an  anonymous  satire,  La  Muse  de  Cavalier,  or,  an 
Apology  for  such  Gentlemen,  as  make  Poetry  their  Diversion,  not 
their  Business.  In  a  Letter  from  a  Scholar  of  Mars,  to  one  of 
Apollo.202  Horace  Walpole,  in  his  Catalogue  of  Royal  and  Noble 
Authors,  2d  ed.,  II,  126,  attributes  La  Muse  de  Cavalier  to  Charles 
Mordaunt,  Earl  of  Peterborough ;  but  Cutts'  inclusion  of  the  poem  in 
his  later  volume  disposes  of  any  doubt  as  to  the  authorship.  I  see 
no  reason  for  the  use  of  the  French  title,  unless  it  is  that  finding  the 
title  in  French  poetry,  he  appropriated  it  for  his  own  satire. 

The  size  of  the  pamphlet  is  20  cm.  x  15.5cm.;  it  contains  only 
sixteen  pages.  Pages  1-12  contain  La  Muse  de  Cavalier;  pages  13-14, 
a  brief  satire  "To  the  author  of  La  Muse  de  Cavalier",  by  an  anony- 
mous critic;  and  pages  15-16,  "To  an  Unknown  Scribbler  Who 
directed  a  railing  Paper  to  the  Author  of  La  Muse  de  Cavalier",  by 
Cutts. 

La  Muse  is  a  more  or  less  serious  renunciation  of  the  life  of  a 
poet  for  the  life  of  a  soldier.  It  is  at  the  same  time  a  defense  of 
avocations.  Cutts  had  written  verses  only  to  pass  an  idle  hour;  his 
method  has  been  realistic :  he  had  no  other  rules. 

"But  drawing  Knaves  like  Knaves,  and  Fools  like  Fools". 
The  plain  unadorned  truth  had  hurt  some,  and  these  in  amusing  fashion 
expressed  their  derision  of  the  poet-soldier.  He  concludes  his  reply 
with  a  suggested  modus  vivendi: 

"But  now  and  then  to  vary  for  Delight, 
Fight  ye  like  Poets,  we'll  like  Souldiers  write". 

200  Dryden,  Works,  Scott  and  Saintsbury  ed.,  XII,  228,  note. 

^Ewald,  A.  C,  Life  and  Times  of  Algernon  Sidney,  II,  1;  The  Love 
Letters  of  Dorothy  Osborne,  XIX. 

02  The  British  Museum  and  the  library  of  Yale  University  have  copies  of 
the  original  edition;  and  a  rotograph  copy  may  be  found  in  the  library  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania. 


INTRODUCTION  xli 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  early  the  poem  was  written.  It  was  com- 
posed before  Cutts  had  a  patron,  for  he  had  found,  he  tells  us,  no 
Maecenas  to  admire  his  Muse.  This  points  to  a  date  previous  to  his 
acquaintance  with  Queen  Mary  begun  some  time  in  1685.  It  is  not 
known  whose  attack  he  is  answering ;  the  critic,  he  says,  writes  essays, 
prologues,  epilogues,  love  songs,  satire,  translations,  senseless  farce, 
disgusting  plays,  and  "stately  nonsense  in  heroic  verse".  Dryden  did 
all  this,  but  Dryden  makes  no  mention  of  Cutts  in  any  of  his  satires 
that  remain.  There  were  other  men  likewise  who  did  all  these  things, 
but  the  data  in  Cutts'  satire  are  too  few  for  us  to  identify  the  anony- 
mous critic.  It  is,  in  fact,  quite  possible  that  he  had  no  particular 
person  in  mind,  but  according  to  a  practice  common  in  the  writing 
of  satire,  was  hitting  at  a  man  of  straw  whom  he  had  set  up. 

Tho  published  in  November,  1685,  the  publication  in  the  same 
pamphlet  of  a  satire  by  an  anonymous  critic  shows  us  that  La  Muse  had 
been  written  earlier.  The  inclusion  of  two  or  three  coarse  passages 
later  omitted  points  (as  will  be  shown  more  fully  later)  to  composition 
before  he  came  to  Mary's  Court.  Actual  publication  took  place,  how- 
ever, probably  while  he  was  at  the  court,  but  anonymously. 

As  satire,  the  lines  may  not  be  important,  but  neither  are  they 
without  some  genuine  worth.  The  author  shows  good  spirit.  There 
are  a  good  many  pointed,  but  not  savage,  thrusts.  Cutts  seems  to 
find  just  as  much  satisfaction  in  delineating  himself  as  his  critics  see 
him  as  he  does  in  delineating  his  critics  as  he  sees  them.  Is  it  too 
fertile  a  use  of  imagination  to  say  that  in  this  we  detect  an  evidence 
of  the  soldier's  spirit  of  fair  play  ?  For  him,  it  is  a  fight  in  the  open 
with  fairly  keen  blades,  but  he  knows,  too,  that  there  are  cracks  in 
his  own  armor.  There  are  three  or  four  good  quotable  lines,  such  as 

"Who  talk  all  Weathers,  and  speak  sense  by  fits"; 
or 

"Sense  will  be  sense,  and  he  a  Block-head  still"; 
or 

"You  give  a  souldier  leave  to  eat  and  drink ; 
And  prithee  why  not  give  him  leave  to  think?" 

These,  to  be  sure,  are  not  memorable;  but  they  are  interesting  and 
sturdy;  and  we  could  indeed  wish  that  Cutts  had  written  more 
satire.203 

I  have  referred  to  several  coarse  passages.  But  the  author  seems 
to  have  otherwise  unusual  standards  for  his  day  in  that  he  insists  that 
he  will  not  play  fast  and  loose  with  names  and  reputations.  Here, 
as  well  as  elsewhere,  he  protests  that  he  is  not  in  league  with  sots 

**  I  have  included  among  the  poems  for  completeness'  sake  an  unimportant 
satirical  stanza  addressed  to  Lord  Skardell,  an  unknown  rival  of  Cutts. 


xlii  INTRODUCTION 

and  fools  and  knaves,  but  that  he  aims  solely  to  defend  virtue  and 
make  her  attractive.  Thus,  even  in  his  first  published  poem,  Cutts 
seemed  to  have  written  with  a  conscience  and  with  a  certain  serious- 
ness not  common  with  the  Court  poets  of  the  period. 

The  satire  contains  139  lines  of  heroic  couplet,  the  form  in  which 
most  of  his  writing  is  done.  There  are  three  examples  of  the  use  of 
the  triple  rime — a  trick  of  which  Dry  den  was  fond,  Dry  den,  however, 
using  it  with  the  third  line  an  alexandrine.  The  movement  is  flexible 
and  spirited. 

Early  in  1687,  immediately  after  his  return  from  Buda,  Cutts 
published  his  second  volume:  Poetical  Exercises  Written  Upon  Sev- 
eral Occasions.  Presented,  and  Dedicated  to  her  Royal  Highness, 
Mary  Princess*  of  Orange.  It  is  a  volume  of  XVI  +  64  pages,  size 
11.5  cm.,  X  17.5  cm.,  bound  in  leather.  It  contains  twenty-one  poems, 
among  them  being  a  slightly  altered  version  of  La  Muse  de  Cavalier, 
and  fifteen  lyrics.  The  Dedication  suggests  that  he  prepared  the  volume 
in  some  haste. 

There  is  no  way  of  telling  just  when  these  poems  were  written. 
With  the  one  exception,  of  course,  they  may  all  have  been  composd 
since  1685,  but  this  conclusion  is  not  at  all  necessary,  since  we  know 
that  he  had  written  verses  before  that  date.  There  is  a  hint  in  the 
Dedication  that  he  wrote  them  in  camp,  but  it  is  no  more  than  a  hint. 
He  does,  however,  tell  us  definitely  that  the  verses  were  written  at 
various  times.  And  he  assures  us  that  the  published  volume  represents 
only  selections. 

Cutts  had  a  reputation  for  vanity,  but  there  is  no  evidence  of 
vanity  in  his  poetry — unless  we  insist  that  the  very  act  of  publication 
is  presumptive.  The  title  is  modest:  Poetical  Exercises.  In  the 
Dedication  he  speaks  of  the  volume  as  a  "Present  of  ...  little 
value,  of  pretending  "to  no  Exactness  in  an  Art,  which  I  never  pro- 
fess'd" ;  and  that  "most  of  [the  poems  are]  very  rough  and  imperfect." 
Why  then  should  he  have  presumed  to  publish  them  at  all  ?  He  gives 
his  reason  in  the  Dedication ;  his  chief  design  is  to  write  in  defense  of 
truth  and  virtue  when  they  are  almost  driven  out  of  the  world.  And 
he  dedicated  the  volume  to  Mary  because  she  would  sympathize  with 
his  purpose  and  because  too  he  was  indebted  to  her  for  the  hospitality 
of  her  Court. 

This  brings  us  naturally  to  a  point  of  some  interest  in  this  second 
volume,  namely,  its  freedom  from  all  coarseness  and  almost  all  objec- 
tionable allusions.  Ten  lines  from  the  first  edition  of  La  Muse  de 
Cavalier  and  all  of  "To  An  Unknown  Scribbler" — thirty-one  lines 
more — (as  well  as  "To  the  Author  of  La  Muse  de  Cavalier"  written 
by  another  than  Cutts)  are  omitted  from  the  1687  volume.  Moreover, 


INTRODUCTION  xlHi 

the  love  lyrics  in  the  volume,  a  form  of  poetry  which  offers  to  a 
writer  unusual  opportunities  for  license,  are  virtually  unobjectionable. 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  we  ought  to  look  to  his  patronesses  tor 
a  good  part  of  the  restraining  influence.  The  Princess  Mary  was 
herself  a  woman  of  high  ideals  and  deep  piety,  and  her  Court  can  be 
described  in  two  words:  decorous  but  dull.  The  Duchess  of  Mon- 
mouth,  too,  was  above  all  suspicion  in  an  age  in  which  suspicion  was 
common.204  With  two  such  high-minded  women  as  patrons,  and  with 
his  volume  dedicated  to  one  of  them,  Cutts  could  not  afford  to  publish 
coarse  lines.  Finally,  we  have  seen  it  to  be  quite  possible  that  Cutts 
was  acquainted  with  Lady  Russell,  Lord  and  Lady  Temple,  and  pos- 
sibly other  members  of  the  group ;  if  there  was  such  an  acquaintance, 
the  repugnance  of  these  persons  to  the  indelicacy  of  the  times  would 
have  restrained  Cutts,  eager,  as  he  was,  for  the  good  opinion  and 
favor  of  powerful  friends.205 

Concerning  the  satire,  La  Muse  de  Cavalier,  there  is  nothing  more 
to  add  beyond  the  fact  that  the  title  was  modified  in  the  revised 
editions  to  La  Muse  Cavaliere — an  unimportant  change,  for  which  the 
reason  is  not  obvious. 

The  three  poems,  "Wisdom",  'To  Mr.  Waller",  and  "Origo 
Musarum",  all  written  in  the  heroic  couplet,  reveal  the  more  serious 
side  of  Cutts. 

The  thought  of  "Wisdom"  is  not  new :  wisdom  is  not  to  be  found 
with  the  hermit  or  the  epicure  or  the  miser;  it  is  rather  the  gift  of 
heaven.  And  if  heaven,  he  adds,  will  vouchsafe  him  this  gift,  how 
happy  and  courageous  he  will  be!  But  if  the  thought  is  not  new,  it 
is  at  least  expressed  with  vigor  and  life ;  and  the  poem  does  not  drag. 
The  bravado  of  the  last  eight  lines  is  a  prophecy  of  the  daring  that 
was  to  characterize  the  whole  of  the  poet's  military  career.  If  his 
choice  of  subject  and  the  tendency  to  moralize  seem  surprising,  we 
should  not  forget  under  whose  patronage  he  wrote. 

This  poem  on  "Wisdom"  Waller  was  good  enough  to  commend. 
We  do  not  have  Waller's  commendation,  but  we  do  have  Cutts'  buoyant 
acknowledgment  of  it.  Now  that  he  has  been  recognized  by  the  great 
writer,  nothing  in  poetic  achievement  seems  beyond  his  powers.  It 
is  just  such  a  poem  as  many  another  very  young  man  might  have 
written  under  similar  circumstances,  for  it  is  full  of  enthusiasm  and 
gratitude.  The  soldier  in  Cutts  again  crops  out  in  his  figure  of  the 
heedless  volunteer. 

204  See  concerning  Mary,  Jesse,  J.  H.,  The  Court  of  England  from  1688  to 
George  III,  I,  129;  and  the  Duchess  of  Monmouth,  Dryden,  Works,  Scott  and 
Saintsbury  ed.,  II,  285,  note. 

105  If  it  be  objected  that  he  published  La  Muse  de  Cavalier  after  he  had 
formed  these  friendships,  it  may  be  answered  that  the  satire  was  published 
anonymously. 


Xliv  INTRODUCTION 

The  development  of  the  thought  in  "Origo  Musarum"  was  again 
of  a  kind  to  please  his  patroness.  The  poem  is  in  reality  a  defence 
of  poetry.  The  Muses  were  not  born  of  heathen  gods,  but  are  rather 
of  heavenly  descent;  and  it  was  they  who  inspired  Moses,  David, 
Solomon,  and  Paul.  If  this  then  is  their  origin,  the  dignity  and  high 
worth  of  poetry  must  at  once  be  admitted.  Such  a  conception  of  the 
descent  of  the  Muses,  while  perhaps  not  frequent  in  English  poetry, 
is  not  without  parallel,  for  it  may  be  found  in  the  opening  lines  of 
Paradise  Lost,  Book  I,  in  which  Milton  refers  definitely  to  the  Muses' 
inspiration  of  Moses  and  David;  and  in  the  early  lines  of  Book  VII, 
where  at  some  length  he  speaks  of  the  descent  of  one  of  the  Muses, 
and  refers  to  her  as  "heaven-born."  Waller,  too,  in  Of  Divine  Poesy, 
Canto  II,  writes: 

"Delphos  unknown,  no  Muse  could  then  inspire 
But  that  which  governs  the  celestial  choir". 

Finally,  we  ought  not  to  forget,  in  tracing  the  origin  of  this  idea, 
Princess  Mary's  zeal  for  religion  and  its  probable  influence  upon  her 
courtier. 

The  poem  is  interesting  in  its  reflection  of  the  author's  thoughts 
and  concerns.  In  David, 

"Who  was  a  Poet,  and  a  Souldier  too", 

he  naturally  found  much  to  interest  him;  he  devoted  four  pages  to 
David — almost  twice  as  many  as  to  Moses  and  Solomon.  David's 
banishment  leads  to  the  reflection  that  it  is 

"Heaven's  usual  way  to  form  the  greatest  Minds". 

He  could  hardly  help  thinking  here  of  his  own  flight  from  England 
for  safety  after  Monmouth's  Rebellion.  And  when  he  wrote 

"When  wanted  in  the  Council,  or  the  Field, 
To  fruitful  pains  he  made  his  pleasures  yield; 


But  when  his  bus'ness  gave  him  leave  to  rest, 
With  gentler  Arts  he  mollified  his  Breast", 

his  own  double  interest  in  war  and  poetry  must  have  come  to  his 
mind.    In  the  reflection 

"And  we  may  certainly  conclude  from  this, 
That  Love,  when  true,  's  the  greatest  Human  Bliss : 
But  few  on  earth  are  so  divinely  blest : 
The  hardest  things  to  find,  are  still  the  best ; 
Some  never  have  the  Blessing  in  their  Power, 
And  most  who  have,  neglect  their  lucky  Hour", 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

there  was  more  than  likely  present  to  his  thought  the  knowledge  of 
William's  faithlessness  to  Mary,  and  perhaps  a  misgiving  over  the 
forced  breaking  of  his  own  engagement  to  Elizabeth  Villiers. 
Finally,  in  the  last  ten  lines  he  attempts  a  definition  of  poetry.  Is  it 
in  the  matter?  Or  is  it  in  the  manner?  Does  it  lie  in  the  decking  out 
of  the  chosen  thought?  He  is  cautious  enough  not  to  commit  him- 
self, but  rather  concludes  with  a  reflection  with  which  even  the  critic 
most  set  upon  phrasing  a  definition  will  agree : 

"  Tis  (like  the  strange  effects  of  Heat  and  Cold) 
Something  in  Nature  better  felt  than  told". 

By  the  command  of  the  Duchess  of  Monmouth  Cutts  read  and 
appraised  the  poetry  of  Boileau.  To  the  Dutchess  of  Monmouth  is 
the  record  of  his  appraisal.  To  Boileau  he  gave  unstinted  praise. 

It  is  impossible  to  tell  even  from  the  full  title  of  the  poem  just 
what  works  of  the  French  poet  Cutts  had  read;  his  phrase  is  simply 
"Monsieur  Boileau's  Poems".  But  in  the  opening  lines  a  reference  to 

"all  the  Modern  Writers  who  have  Try'd 
With  easie  Wit,  Mens  Folly  to  deride", 

points  clearly  to  Boileau's  satires.  And  an  examination  of  the  satires 
verifies  this  inference.  Cutts  mentions  Boileau's  treatment  of  the 
hypocrite,  the  libertine,  the  pedant,  and  the  fop;  Boileau  has  satirized 
these  men  in  Satire  IV.  Cutts  mentions  briefly  the  French  writer's 
attitude  toward  true  nobility ;  Satire  V  of  Boileau  is  "Sur  la  Noblesse", 
and  Cutts'  phrasing  and  thought  are  definitely  influenced  by  Boileau's. 
It  is  also  probable  that  Cutts  had  read  Satires  VIII  and  IX,  the  for- 
mer upon  Man,  and  the  latter  an  attack  upon  certain  authors,  for  he 
comments  briefly  upon  the  subjects  discussed  in  these  satires.  Old- 
ham  had  translated  Satires  V  and  VIII,  but  we  may  feel  certain  that 
Cutts  read  Boileau  in  the  original.206 

Cutts  gave  Boileau  almost  unstinted  praise  as  a  satirist.  There 
is  no  doubt  of  Boileau's  cleverness  and  ability  to  reproduce  almost 
photographically  the  objects  of  his  satire;  but  it  is  wide  of  the  mark 
to  say  that  Boileau  is 

"a  good  Model  of  true  Poetry", 
or  that  in  his  verse 

"Something  so  very  charming  there  appears". 

**  In  Satire  V  Boileau  writes  : 

"Choissez  de  Cesar,  d'Achille,  ou  d'Alexandre" ; 
Oldham, 

"Take  Caesar,  Alexander,  whom  you  please"; 
Cutts, 

"Tho  drawn  from  Caesar's  or  Achilles  blood". 

Cutts,  it  is  observed,  chose  the  name  of  Achilles,  which  does  not  appear  in 
Oldham's  translation.  However,  I  ought  not  to  omit  to  add  that  Oldham  and 
Cutts  both  use  "mouldy  parchments"  for  Boileau's  "vieux  parchemins" ;  but  it 
is  easier  to  suppose  a  coincidence  in  the  translation  of  "vieux"  than  to  account 
for  the  use  of  the  different  proper  names  mentioned  above. 


Xlvi  INTRODUCTION 

Nevertheless,  such  praise,  however  extravagant  it  seems  to  us,  is  to 
be  expected,  for  Cutts  would  unquestionably  accept  the  contemporary 
judgment  according  to  which  Boileau  was  the  master  poet  of  the  age. 

The  other  verses  in  the  volume  are  lyrics  almost  wholly  on  the 
theme  of  love.  Here,  too,  Cutts  writes  after  the  manner  of  his  time. 
One  feels  about  his  lyrics,  as  about  much  else  of  the  Restoration 
poetry,  that  they  are  no  more  than  exercises,  at  least  in  the  sense  that 
the  emotion  is  artificial,  the  expression  is  exaggerated,  and  the  names 
mere  counters.  Six  or  seven  of  the  lyrics  are  on  the  young  man's 
particular  theme — the  despair  and  anguish  of  disappointed  love.  But 
there  is  about  these  as  about  all  the  other  lyrics  the  note  of  "amorous 
gallantry";  the  man  is  not  making  love;  he  is  simply  writing  verses. 
Two  lyrics  may  be  exceptions  to  this  generalization:  possibly  "Hear, 
gentle  Nymph" ;  and  "Only  tell  her  that  I  love",  by  all  odds  the  best 
lyric  in  the  volume,  the  only  one  that  shows  any  abandon  at  all,  and 
with  one  exception  the  only  one,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  music  of 
which  has  been  preserved. 

There  is  evidence  in  these  lyrics  of  the  influence  of  the  prevalent 
Platonic  doctrines  of  love.  Platonic  love,  with  its  exaltation  of  friend- 
ship and  its  emphasis  on  the  spiritual  qualities  of  love,  while  often 
distorted  and  perverted  and  even  sensualized,  could  be  and  was  an 
influence  for  purity.  We  have  commented  before  upon  the  unusual 
freedom  from  coarseness  in  the  poems  of  Cutts;  Platonism  as  well 
as  the  influence  of  Mary  and  the  Duchess  of  Monmouth  may  be  respon- 
sible for  it. 

Further  evidence  of  the  influence  is  to  be  found  in  thoughts  and 
phrases.  In  "To  a  Young  Lady",  for  example,  he  speaks  of  the  angels 
being  "maintained  by  Harmony  and  Love".  In  "Friendship",  it  is  in 

"Two  serene  harmonius  Minds     .     .     . 
Where  Love  delights  to  build  a  Seat" ; 

and  a  parting  exhortation  is  that  they 

"in  Mists  no  longer  roam, 
But  make  our  selves  entirely  blest". 

In  this  same  poem  he  holds  that  secrecy  is  fundamental  to  friendship 
— a  Platonic  tenet.  Other  Platonic  doctrines,  such  as  the  exaltation 
of  constancy  and  purity,  find  repeated  exemplification  in  these  lyrics. 
If  it  be  asked  where  Cutts  came  under  the  influence  of  these  teach- 
ings, we  may  point  to  his  possible  acquaintance  with  Sir  William 
Temple  and  Lady  Temple,  formerly  Dorothy  Osborne;  and  with  Sir 
Charles  Cotterel,  master  of  ceremonies  to  Charles  II,  and  originally 


INTRODUCTION  xlvii 

a  member  of  the  group  centering  about  "the  Matchless  Orinda",  with 
whom  Platonic  Doctrines  were  a  strong  influence.207 

Ten  of  Cutts'  lyrics  were  set  to  music,  eight  by  Robert  King, 
one  by  John  Abell,  and  one  by  James  Hart.  These  were  men 
of  note  in  the  world  of  music  of  the  time :  King  was  a  composer  and 
a  member  of  the  royal  band  of  music  in  William's  and  Anne's  reigns ; 
Abell  was  a  celebrated  lutanist  and  alto  singer  and  a  gentleman  of 
the  Chapel  Royal  from  1679-1688;  Hart  was  a  composer;  a  gentle- 
man of  the  Chapel  Royal,  and  chorister  of  Westminster  Abbey.  It 
is  not  likely  that  men  in  these  positions  would  have  taken  the  trouble 
to  set  Cutts'  poems  to  music  if  he  had  not  some  reputation  at  court 
or  in  some  other  influential  circle.  Unfortunately,  the  music  of  only 
two  lyrics  has  come  down  to  us,  that  for  "Only  tell  her  that  I  love", 
and  "The  Innocent  Gazer".  The  songs  were  originally  set  by  King; 
but  whether  the  extant  MSS.  are  by  King  cannot  be  decided,  for  the 
MSS.  are  anonymous.208 

The  lyrics  of  Cutts  show  a  great  variety  of  verse  forms.  He 
uses  the  heroic  couplet  the  verse  in  which  three- fourths  of  all  his 
poetry  is  written,  a  seven  line  4-stressed  stanza  riming  ababccc,  the 
4-stress  quatrain  riming  abab  and  aabb  in  alternate  stanzas,  a  5-line 
stanza  of  heroic  measure,  with  the  fifth  line  an  alexandrine  riming 
aabbb,  a  3-stress  quatrain  (the  last  line  4-stress)  riming  abba — an  early 
use  of  this  rime,  and  one  or  two  unconventional  forms.  When  we 
remember  that  he  wrote  only  fourteen  lyrics  in  all,  the  variety  of 
structure  is  additionally  interesting.  It  is  likely  that  he  was  merely 
trying  to  see  what  he  could  do  with  various  forms;  but  the  very 
attempt  at  variety  indicates  a  flexible  mind  and  some  freedom  from 
restraint.  Moreover,  the  distribution  of  the  accent  within  the  lines 
is  usually  free  from  monotony — an  item  that  points  to  some  care  in 
the  construction  of  the  verses. 

The  changes  in  pronunciation  lead  readers  to  attribute  undue 
carelessness  to  poets  of  an  earlier  century.  A  careful  examination, 
however,  will  usually  show  that  the  poets  of  a  past  age  have  taken 
no  more  liberties  than  poets  of  the  present.  And  this  is  true  of  the 
poems  of  John  Cutts.  The  following  were  probably  good  rimes  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  tho  they  are  no  longer  so :  good,  blood;  move 
and  prove  with  love,  above  and  grove;  great,  feet;  gild,  field;  gone, 
alone;  evil,  devil;  etc.  This  is  not  to  say  that  there  are  no  imperfect 

""For  a  discussion  of  Platonic  love  and  "the  Matchless  Orinda"  group, 
Fletcher,  J.  B.,  The  Religion  of  Beauty  in  Women,  esp.  181-189;  S'aintsbury, 
G.,  Caroline  Poets,  I,  486-9;  Gosse,  E.,  XV llth  Century  Studies,  229-258. 

108  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS.,  31461 ;  a  rotograph  copy  may  be  found  in  the 
library  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  music  for  "The  Innocent  Gazer" 
may  be  found  in  Pills  to  Purge  Melancholy,  IV,  309. 


Xlviii  INTRODUCTION 

and  bad  rimes  in  Cutts,  for  there  are  examples  of  both ;  but  the  per- 
centage of  such  rimes  in  Cutts  is  probably  not  greater  than  in  his 
contemporaries. 

Except  for  a  poem  on  the  death  of  Queen  Mary208a  in  1694, 
Cutts  wrote  nothing,  so  far  as  we  know,  after  1687.  The  reasons 
are  not  far  to  seek.  We  have  seen  that  his  life  was  crowded  with 
activities  that  must  have  taken  almost  all  his  time.  Some  men  indeed 
would  have  been  able  under  similar  conditions  to  find  time  for  writ- 
ing, but  apparently  Cutts  was  not  one  of  them.  An  equally  potent 
reason,  perhaps,  is  to  be  found  in  William's  attitude  toward  literature. 
Few  English  sovereigns  have  had  less  interest  in  letters  than  he;  and 
no  favorite  of  his  would  be  inclined  to  continue  the  cultivation  of  a 
poetic  gift.  It  is  true  that  Cutts  was  no  stranger  to  the  Prince  of 
Orange  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  his  earlier  volumes;  but  the 
acquaintance  had  been  short,  and  associations  with  English  literary 
patrons  were  still  fresh. 

The  most  conspicuous  example  of  Cutts  as  a  patron  is  in  his 
relationship  with  Steele.  Like  Cutts,  Steele  had  written  in  March 
1695,  a  poem  on  the  death  of  Queen  Mary;  it  was  published  anony- 
mously under  the  title  of  The  Procession,  and  was  dedicated  to  Lord 
Cutts,  ostensibly  because  he  had  been  a  faithful  servant  to  the  Queen. 
Steele  was  at  the  time  apparently  unknown  to  Cutts,  but  it  was  not 
long — probably  in  1695 — before  he  had  been  taken  into  Cutts'  house- 
hold and  secured  an  ensign's  commission  in  the  Coldstream  Guards. 
Steele  became  his  private  secretary  in  Wight,  and  the  relations  between 
the  two  grew  to  be  very  intimate — almost  those  of  a  son  or  brother, 
according  to  Steele  himself.  In  1700,  Lord  Cutts  vigorously  defended 
Steele  for  his  share  in  a  serious  duel  with  a  Captain  Kelly.  In  1701, 
Steele  dedicated  his  Christian  Hero  to  Lord  Cutts,  suggesting  in  the 
dedication  that  a  work  of  such  a  nature  could  appropriately  be  ad- 
dressed to  him. 

But  by  1705  a  quarrel  between  the  two  men  had  developed. 
Steele  complained  that  Cutts  had  failed  to  pay  him  for  long  and  charge- 
able attendance.  Cutts'  response  was  that  Steele  had  acknowledged 
that  the  advantageous  friendship  of  the  one  had  balanced  the  services 
of  the  other.  The  correspondence  seemed  to  have  ceased  at  this  point, 
probably  without  payment  of  the  debt.209  It  is  likely  that  Cutts' 

208a  Walpole,  Horace,  A  Catalogue  of  Royal  and  Noble  Authors,  II,  245, 
states  that  this  poem  is  to  be  found  in  State  Poems,  Part  II,  199,  but  a  searcher 
in  the  British  Museum  has  tried  without  success  to  find  it  for  me.  A  few  lines 
are  given  in  Strickland,  Agnes,  The  Queens  of  England,  VII,  448;  judged  by 
these  the  poem  is  mediocre. 

209  For  all  these  relations  with  Steele,  see  Aitkens,  G.,  The  Life  of  Richard 
Steele,  2  vols.  Aitken  includes  copies  of  some  of  Cutts'  business  papers  with 
which  Steele  had  to  do  (I,  55-8),  and  reproduces  an  order  to  Steele  in  Cutts' 
autograph. 


INTRODUCTION  xlix 

friendship  had  helped  Steele  to  military  advancement,  but  there  is 
no  evidence  that  he  introduced  him  to  the  literary  circles  or  was  any 
influence  in  his  literary  fortunes.  Steele  described  in  the  Taller,  No. 
61,  a  scholar  of  fire  and  a  soldier  of  fire;  and  in  No.  196,  he  wrote 
of  patrons  and  dependants ;  but  in  neither  of  these  is  there  more  than 
a  suggestion  of  Lord  Cutts  or  of  his  relationship  with  Cutts.  Steele 
did,  however,  quote  in  the  Tatler,  No.  5,  only  two  or  three  months 
before  his  quarrel  with  Cutts,  the  first  stanza  of  "Only  tell  her  that 
I  love",  but  without  giving  Cutts  the  credit  of  authorship. 

At  least  two  other  authors  dedicated  their  works  to  Lord  Cutts. 
Edward  D'Auvergne  addressed  to  him  in  1696  his  History  of  the  Last 
Campaign  in  the  Spanish  Netherlands',  Cutts,  it  will  be  remembered, 
played  an  important  part  in  this  campaign.  And  in  1704  Thomas 
Goodwin  dedicated  to  Cutts  a  History  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  V  in 
nine  books.210  It  is  not  known,  however,  what  further  friendship 
existed  between  these  men  and  Lord  Cutts. 

We  have  seen  in  the  previous  section  the  contemporary  appraisal 
of  Cutts  as  a  soldier.  The  praise  of  him  as  a  poet  is  more  moderate. 

His  La  Muse  Cavaliere  is,  as  we  have  seen,  a  spirited  reply  to  an 
anonymous  critic  who  had  advised  him  not  to  give  up  the  trade  of  war 
for  poetry. 

In  1698  John  Hopkins,  himself  an  aspiring  but  not  too  successful 
versifier,  addressed  a  flattering  poem  to  Cutts  in  which  he  spoke  of 
the  double  crown  due  Cutts ;  of  their  expectation  now  that  Dryden  was 
old,  he  would  celebrate  William's  fame ;  and  of  the  success  he  had  had 
alike  with  sword  and  pen.211 

"He  was  indeed,"  said  another,  "  a  polite  gentleman,  a  scholar,  and 
a  friend  to  the  Muses,  and  there  are  some  fragments  of  his  poetical 
fancy  extant,  which  discover  the  excellency  of  his  genius  that  way.212 

Steele  saw  enough  virtue  in  the  first  stanza  of  "Only  tell  her  that 
I  love"  to  quote  it  in  the  Tatler,  No.  5,  as  illustrating  the  love  of  Honest 
Cynthio.  And  Horace  Walpole,  in  writing  an  epitaph  for  a  proposed 
monument  to  Cutts,  said : 

"He  gave  her  subjects  for  the  immortal  lyre, 

And  sought  in  idle  hours  th'  tuneful  choir ; 
Skilful  to  mount  by  either  path  to  fame, 
And  dear  to  memory  by  a  double  name."  213 

no  Browne,  G.  F.,  The  History  of  St.  Catharine  College,  164,  states  the 
title  of  fhe  book  as  The  History  of  Edward  V;  but  there  is  no  such  title  by 
Goodwin  listed  in  the  British  Museum  Catalogue.  On  the  other  hand,  The 
History  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  V  is  listed  under  Thomas  Goodwin;  and  the 
Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  XXII,  150,  states  that  this  work  was  dedicated  to  Cutts. 

"Nichols,  John,  Select  Collection  of  Poems,  II,  325-7. 

**  Compleat  History  of  Europe,  ibid. 

"Walpole,  Horace,  Letters,  III,  494.  Walpole  also  includes  Cutts  in  A 
Catalogue  of  the  Royal  and  Noble  Authors  of  England,  2nd  ed.,  II,  244. 


L  INTRODUCTION 

But  he  adds  in  a  postscript :  "The  latter  lines  to  own  his  having 
been  but  a  moderate  poet,  and  to  cover  that  mediocrity  under  his  valour, 
all  which  is  true." 

There  is  truth  in  Walpole's  estimate.  And  yet  there  are  writers 
better  known  than  Cutts  whose  verse  is  not  superior  to  his.  He  is 
worth  remembering  as  a  not  unworthy  representative  of  a  group  of  cul- 
tivated late  seventeenth  century  poets,  who  wrote  gracefully  without 
being  conspicuously  poetical ;  as  a  writer  who  almost  never  stooped  to 
the  coarseness  to  be  found  in  much  of  contemporary  writing — a  mark 
of  some  distinction ;  and  a  soldier  who  also  had  some  skill  with  the  pen. 


POETICAL 

EXERCISES 

WRITTEN 
Upon  Several  Occasions. 


PRESENTED,  and  DEDICATED 
TO 

HER  ROYAL  HIGHNESS, 

MARY 

Princess  of  ORANGE. 


Licensed,  March  23,  1687. 

ROGER  L'ESTRANGE. 


LONDON, 

Printed  for  R.  Bentley,  and  51.  Magnes,  in  Russet- 
street,  in  Covent-Garden,  1687. 


To 
HER  ROYAL  HIGHNESS 

THE 
PRINCESS  OF  ORANGE 


Madam, 


I  Should  not  offer  Your  Royal  Highness  a  Present  of  so  little 
value  had  I  not  this  to  encourage  me;  that  'tis  not  the  Gift  itself,  but 
the  Way  of  giving,  which  finds  Acceptance  with  Great,  and  Generous 
Minds.  And  in  this  (as  in  other  things)  they  resemble  the  Divinity; 
that  looks  with  more  favourable  Eye  upon  Sincerity,  and  Truth  (tho' 
in  the  plainest  Dress)  than  upon  all  the  Pomp,  and  Splendour  of  a 
Costly  Worship. 

It  is  not  as  a  Poet,  Madam,  that  I  address  my  self  to  Your  Royal 
Highness.  For  I  pretend  to  no  Exactness  in  an  Art,  which  I  never 
profess'd.  The  Course  of  Life,  which  I  have  form'd  to  my  Self,  lies 
quite  in  another  Road ;  and  I  have  never  convers'd  with  the  Muses,  but 
in  some  dead  Intervals  of  Time ;  when  I  have  had  no  Company  but  my 
own  self,  and  no  Business  but  to  think. 

So  that,  when  I  throw  these  Papers  at  Your  Royal  Highnesses 
Feet,  it  is  not  that  I  think  they  deserve  that  Honour ;  but  as  an  humble 
expression  of  Duty;  which  I  am  more  particularly  oblig'd  to  pay;  be- 
cause I  have  been  so  happy  as  to  pass  some  Time  in  Your  Royal  High 
nesses  Court;  and  to  be  a  Witness  of  those  Things,  which  have  enter'd 
Your  Character  in  the  Books  of  Fame ;  and  rais'd  it  to  so  high  a  Pitch, 
that  it  strikes  Your  Enemies  with  Silence,  Your  Friends  with  Joy,  and 
all  the  World  with  Admiration. 

I  know,  Madam,  to  flatter  Greatness  is  a  Disease  common  in 
Courts ;  and  those  few  who  escape  it,  because  they  converse  with  an  in- 
fected Multitude,  are  seldom  look'd  upon  as  sound;  but  I  am  sure,  I 
was  never  guilty  of  that  Weakness.  And  indeed,  not  to  mention  the 
real  Injustice,  as  well  as  the  numerous  ill  Consequences,  that  attend  it; 
there  is  something  in  the  very  Nature  of  Flattery  too  mean,  and  little 
for  an  Honest  Mind  to  stoop  to. 

But  at  the  same  time  that  I  abhor  Flattery,  I  love  Justice ;  and  in 
all,  that  I  say  to  Your  Royal  Highness,  upon  this  Occasion,  everybody 


DEDICATION  3 

is  obliged  to  declare  (or  with  Silence  give  their  Consent)  that  I  only 
give  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  due. 

It  is  certain,  that  very  few  are  fit  to  hear  their  own  Elogies,  for 
where  there  is  the  least  Inclination  to  Pride,  or  Vanity,  it  turns  their 
Heads,  and  exposes  'em  to  a  fall.  But  a  Mind  elevated  above  all  that 
is  Light,  or  Trivial ;  when  it  looks  upon  the  Shadow  of  its  own  Great- 
ness, is  excited  with  a  generous  Heat,  and  presses  forwards  in  the  Race 
of  Glory. 

And  therefore  I  will  presume  to  shew  Your  Royal  Highness,  what 
Streams  of  Blessings  are  flowing  upon  you,  by  the  influence  of  Heaven, 
and  thro'  the  Channels  of  Nature,  and  Fortune. 

Tho',  Madam,  You  have  the  Happiness  to  be  lineally  descended 
from  an  ancient  Race  of  Kings;  and  joyn'd  to  a  growing  Hero,  whose 
Courage  and  Conduct  (like  the  Light)  are  best  known  by  themselves; 
and  can  never  have  so  good  an  Elogy,  as  his  own  Actions ;  yet  Provi- 
dence has  taken  such  particular  Care  in  forming  You ;  that  You  have 
fewer  Equals  in  Personal  Advantages,  than  in  Birth,  and  State. 

I  could  enlarge  upon  this  in  as  many  Particulars,  as  there  are 
Ways  of  being  distinguish'd  from  the  rest  of  the  World.  And  in  every 
one  of  these  Heav'n  has  some  Design.  The  various  Gifts  of  Nature 
are  not  dispens'd  in  vain.  Beauty,  and  Gracefulness  are  no  small  Ad- 
vantages to  Great  Persons ;  giving  a  certain  Force  to  all  their  Words, 
and  Actions,  which  is  hardly  to  be  resisted ;  and  perswading  us,  with  a 
silent  Eloquence,  into  an  awful  Veneration  of  their  Excellencies,  and 
an  imitation  of  their  Vertues.  At  the  same  time,  a  quick,  and  right  Ap- 
prehension of  Things :  a  clear  and  solid  Judgment ;  with  a  Natural  Ten- 
dency to  all  that  is  Just,  and  Good,  and  Charitable ;  are  such  inestima- 
ble Blessings  in  a  high  Station ;  that  you  are  more  beholding  to  God  for 
being  so  qualified,  than  for  being  born  a  Princess.  When  I  add  to  all 
this,  that  Your  Soul  is  touch'd  with  a  Spark  of  that  Fire,  which  warms 
the  Hearts  of  Angels,  and  Kindles  Mortality  into  Desires  that  are 
Immortal;  it  gives  such  a  double  Lustre  to  all  the  rest  of  Your  Ac- 
complishments; and  invests  You  with  something  so  Glorious,  and  Di- 
vine ;  that  we  can  never  have  Eyes  enough  to  Admire  You,  or  Tongues 
enough  to  praise  You. 

But  the  Greatness  of  my  Subject  carries  me  beyond  my  Self ;  and 
I  am  lost  in  a  Multitude  of  Thoughts  too  mighty  to  be  utter'd.  I  shall 
therefore  leave  to  a  Historian  what  is  so  much  above  my  Talent,  and 
Business  at  this  Time. 

Those,  who  are  rash  enough,  to  sully  any  part  of  this  Character, 
will  certainly  betray  a  great  deal  of  Weakness,  or  Malice ;  and  the  In- 
juries, which  they  invent,  will  fall  at  last  upon  their  own  Heads.  Just- 
ice, and  Truth  are  the  particular  Care  of  Heaven.  They  surmount 


4  DEDICATION 

every  thing;  and  their  Lustre  breaks  through  the  thickest  Clouds, 
When  any  Subtilty,  or  Force  of  Argument  can  persuade  Men  to  be- 
lieve, that  the  Sun  does  not  Shine;  or  that  the  Stars  are  not  bright; 
then  (and  not  till  then)  shall  the  Glory  of  an  Illustrious  Life  be  stifled, 
and  obscur'd. 

As  for  this  Little  Present,  Madam ;  which  I  presume  to  offer  Your 
Royal  Highness ;  'tis  composed  of  some  Things,  which  have  been  writ 
at  several  Times,  and  upon  several  Occasions ;  and,  as  they  have  been 
thrown  aside  among  other  things  of  the  same  Nature  (which  I  forbear 
to  Print,  because  I  have  not  had  time  to  look  'em  over)  so  they  are 
most  of  'em  very  rough,  and  imperfect.  But,  at  the  same  time,  I  can- 
not doubt  of  Your  Royal  Highnesses  Protection,  to  any  thing,  that  is 
Writ  in  Defence  of  Truth,  and  Virtue ;  at  a  Time,  when  they  are  almost 
driven  out  of  the  World.  And  That  has  been  the  chief  Design  of  most 
of  these  Papers.  I  have  aim'd  at  the  truest  Images  of  Nature,  the  fair- 
est Pictures  of  Virtue,  and  the  purest  Ideas  of  Divinity.  I  have  en- 
deavor'd  to  represent  the  Passion  of  Love,  not  as  a  great  many  modern 
Hands  have  drawn  it,  but  (as  it  ought  to  be)  in  its  own  native  Beauty, 
and  Innocence. 

I  ask  Your  Royal  Highness  Pardon,  for  the  Liberty,  I  have  taken. 
I  wish  You  every  Thing,  that  may  contribute  to  make  You  entirely 
happy,  And,  as  this  little  Present  has  been  only  the  employment  of 
some  Idle  Hours :  so,  if  it  had  been  the  Business  of  all  my  Life ;  I 
should  think  my  self  more  than  doubly  paid ;  in  having  an  opportunity 
of  declaring  to  the  World;  that  I  am  (with  an  inviolable  Zeal,  and  Sin- 
cerity) 

Madam, 

Your  Royal  Highnesses 
Most  Humble, 

Most  Faithful,  and 

Most  Devoted  Servant, 
J.  Cutts. 


TO  HER 

ROYAL  HIGHNESS 

THE 

Princess  of  ORANGE. 

Upon  my  presenting  her  with  some 

Papers  of  Verses. 

BLest  Princess!  whilst  a  more  auspicious  Fame, 

Through  different  Climates,  celebrates  your  Name, 

And  tells  the  World,  that  in  your  Royal  Blood 

There  flows  a  Spirit  not  more  Great,  tJian  Good: 

Maintain  your  Character;  and  don't  refuse 

This  little  Present  from  a  faithful  Muse, 

Large  Gifts  have  Charms  for  almost  ev'ry  Mind, 

And  to  the  Heart  an  easie  Passage  find : 

But  such  as  these,  hoiv-e're  sincere  and  true, 

Are  only  fit  for  Heai/n,  and  such  as  You;  10 

Great  Souls,  wlw,  in  themselves  entirely  blest, 

Regard  not  who  give  most,  but  who  give  best. 


POEMS 

WISDOM 

Victorious  Wisdom,  whose  supreme  Command 

Extends  beyond  the  Bounds  of  Sea,  and  Land ! 

Tis  thou  alone,  that  dost  reward  our  Pains 

With  Pleasures  that  endure,  and  solid  Gains. 

But,  oh !  what  art  thou,  and  where  dost  thou  dwell  ? 

Not  with  the  Hermite  in  his  lonely  Cell; 

The  sullen  Fumes  of  whose  distemper'd  Brain 

Make  the  dull  Wretch  torment  himself  in  vain ; 

While  of  the  World  affectedly  afraid, 

He  shuns  the  End  for  which  Mankind  was  made.  10 

Not  with  the  Epicure  in  all  his  Pleasure; 
Nor  with  the  Miser  on  his  Banks  of  Treasure: 
The  One's  a  Slave,  bound  fast  in  Golden  Chains ; 
The  Other  buys  short  Joys  with  lasting  Pains. 

Not  in  the  vain  pursuit  of  partial  Fame, 
The  gaudy  Outside  of  an  empty  Name ; 
When  mov'd  by  Chance,  not  Merit,  common  Breath 
Gives  the  false  Shadow  sudden  Life  or  Death. 
Honour  when  meritoriously  assign'd 

To  Noble  Actions,  and  a  God-like  Mind,  20 

Is  then  indeed  a  Blessing  sent  from  Heaven, 
A  bright  Reward  for  Humane  Labours  given: 
But  when  'tis  Fame's  mistaken  Flattery, 
A  blind  ^Applause  of  Pride  and  Vanity, 
The  worthless  Idol  ought  to  be  abhorr'd 
And  is  by  none,  but  Knaves  or  Fools,  ador'd. 

Thus,  as  I'm  searching  with  the  feeble  Light 
Of  Humane  Reason,  in  dark  Error's  Night, 
For  what  has  oft  escap'd  the  piercing  Eye  30 

Of  lofty  Wit,  and  deep  Philosophy, 
From  the  bright  Regions  of  Eternal  Day, 
Methinks,  I  see  a  small  but  glorious  Ray, 
Dart  swift  as  Light'ning  through  the  yielding  Air 
To  an  unspotted  Breast,  and  enter  there. 
Thro  every  corner  of  the  heart  it  shines, 
Subdues  the  Passions,  and  the  Soul  refines; 
Leading  it  safe  thro  all  the  dangerous  Ways 
Of  this  alluring  World's  mysterious  Maze. 
This  is  that  Wisdom  I  so  much  adore ; 

Grant  me  but  this,  Kind  Heav'n ;  I  ask  no  more.  40 

This  once  obtain'd,  how  happy  shall  I  be? 
Kings  will  be  little  Men,  compar'd  to  me ; 
They,  in  their  own  Dominions  only  Great, 


POEMS 

I,  Conqu'rour  of  the  World,  my  Self  and  Fate. 

Thus  arm'd,  let  Fortune  use  me  as  she  will, 
I  stand  prepar'd  to  meet  with  Good  or  111. 
If  I  am  born  for  Happiness  and  Ease, 
And  prosperous  Gales  salute  the  smiling  jeas, 
Those  Paths  Fie  chuse,  the  blessing  to  repay, 
Where  Vertue  calls,  and  Honour  leads  the  Way :  50 

But  if  the  Weather  of  my  life  proves  foul, 
Tho'  Storms  arise,  that  make  whole  Kingdoms  rowl, 
Yet  I  must  on ;  and  'spight  of  all  their  Force 
Tie  steer  my  Vessel  her  appointed  Course ; 
With  her  firm  Beak  the  Billows  she'll  divide, 
And  plow  her  Passage  thro'  the  foaming  Tyde. 

And  at  what  Time,  or  in  what  Place  so  e're 
The  pale-f  ac'd  Conquerour  happens  to  appear ; 
Fierce  as  he  is,  his  Violence  Fie  tame,  60 

And  make  the  King  of  Terrors  change  his  Name. 
While  others  enter  trembling  at  his  Gate, 
Fie  march  up  boldly  in  Triumphant  State ; 
And  passing  thro'  it  into  Worlds  unknown, 
Put  on  my  Glorious  Robes,  and  my  Immortal  Crown. 

To  Mr.  WALLER. 

Upon  his  commending  my 

Verses  of  Wisdom. 

O  Sir,  no  more —    —You  know  not  what  you  do ; 

Such  unexpected  Praises,  and  from  You. 
(Who  are  install'd  among  the  Sons  of  Fame, 
And  the  best  Writers  take  a  Pride  to  name) 
Have  set  my  heedless  Fancy  all  on  Fire, 
And  make  it  to  a  dangerous  Heighth  aspire. 
I  fain  would  mount  the  Muses  aiery  Horse, 
To  try  the  utmost  of  his  Speed  and  Force ; 
With  him  (methinks)  I  could  out-strip  the  Wind, 
And  leave  the  slower  Lightning  far  behind :  10 

I'd  visit  Worlds  by  Mortal  Eyes  unseen, 
And  go  where  none  before  has  ever  been. 
But  if,  like  too  ambitious  Phaeton, 
To  seek  a  Glorious  Ruin  I  rush  on ; 
If  over-heated  in  the  rapid  Course, 
My  fiery  Pegasus,  with  angry  Force, 
Pressing  his  furious  head,  should  break  the  Reins, 
And  wildly  fly  thro'  Thoughts  unbounded  Plains, 
I  fear  I  should,  like  that  unhappy  Youth,  20 


POEMS 

While  with  too  vast  Designs  my  Hopes  I  sooth, 

Instead  of  gaining  Honour  and  Renown, 

From  my  ungovern'd  Flight  come  tumbling  down, 

Yet  all  these  threatning  Dangers  I  shall  slight, 

If  you  commend  my  lines,  and  bid  me  Write, 

The  smallest  Breath,  assisted  by  your  Name, 

Exceeds  the  loudest  Shouts  of  common  Fame. 

So  in  the  War,  sometimes,  a  Volunteer 

Doubles  his  Vigour,  when  a  Gen'rals  near; 

And  if  he  hears  him  say,  'twas  bravely  done, 

Unmindful  of  his  Fate,  he  hurries  on,  30 

Till  daz'ling  Honour  courts  away  his  Breath, 

And  makes  him  run  into  the  Arms  of  Death. 

All  have  a  natural  desire  to  please, 
But  'tis  in  some  a  dangerous  disease ; 
When  uncontroll'd  by  Reasons  juster  Sway, 
It  turns  their  Heads,  and  takes  their  Sense  away. 
Fame,  like  a  Syren,  Charms  the  listning  Ear, 
And  makes  us  blindly  credit  all  we  hear. 
Then  think  upon  some  safe  and  gentle  Ways, 
To  stop  my  fate,  and  moderate  your  Praise.  40 

If  in  my  Verse  you  see  some  Thoughts  Divine, 
They're  to  the  Subject  due,  the  Faults  are  mine. 
Say  then,  lest  any,  Sir,  your  Sense  mistake, 
You  praise  the  Author  for  the  Subjects  sake. 

The  Tyranny  of  PHILLIS. 
Written  by  a  Lady. 

Hear,  gentle  Nymph,  and  by  Example  kno' 
What  those  who  mock  Love's  Pow'r  must  undergo. 

This  Heart  of  mine,  now  wreck'd  upon  despair 
Was  once  as  free  and  careless  as  the  Air; 
In  th'  early  Morning  of  my  tender  years, 
E're  I  was  sensible  of  Hopes  and  Fears, 
It  floated  in  a  Sea  of  Mirth  and  Ease, 
And  thought  the  World  was  only  made  to  please ; 
No  adverse  Wind  had  ever  stopp'd  its  Course, 
Nor  had  it  felt  great  Love's  tempestuous  Force,  10 

(That  Storm  that  swells  the  Tydes  of  Human  Care, 
And  makes  black  Waves  come  rolling  from  afar,) 
'Till  too  much  Freedom  made  it  grow  secure, 
As  if  the  Sunshine  always  would  endure ; 
And  I,  with  haughty  and  disdainful  Pride, 


POEMS 

Mock'd  the  blind  God,  and  all  his  Force  defy'd. 

At  this  enrag'd,  the  injur'd  Deity 

Chose  out  the  best  of  his  Artillery, 

And  in  a  blooming  Virgin's  Dove-like  Eyes 

He  planted  his  Victorious  Batteries;  20 

(Phillis  her  Name,  the  best  of  Woman-kind, 

Could  Love  have  gain'd  the  Empire  of  her  Mind) 

These  shot  so  furiously  against  my  Heart, 

That  Nature's  strength,  tho'  much  improv'd  by  Art, 

With  Groans  gave  way  to  each  resistless  stroak, 

As  when  the  Thunder  rends  some  sturdy  Oak. 

The  wing'd  Battalions  from  her  lovely  face    ] 

Flew  to  the  Breach,  and,  rushing  in  apace,     }• 

Did  quickly  make  her  Mistress  of  the  place.  J 

As  Love's  Vice-gerent  I  her  Laws  obey'd,  30 

It  must  be  so  when  Conquerours  invade. 
But  when  she  saw  how  pow'rful  she  was  grown, 
Made  chief  Commandress  of  the  vanquished  Town, 
She  would  no  more  Love's  just  Decree  obey, 
But  sett  up  for  an  Arbitrary  Sway : 
And  when  her  Tyranny  was  grown  so  great, 
That  ev'ry  humble  Sigh  provok'd  her  Hate, 
Reason,  an  active  States-man,  Wise  and  Stout, 
Heading  the  injur'd  Native,  turn'd  her  out. 

The  God  of  Love  will  find  some  gentle  Fair  40 

To  govern  in  her  room;  but  let  her  swear 
To  hold  a  merciful  and  equal  Sway 
And  all  his  old  Imperial  Laws  obey. 

Till  she  appears,  no  Charms  can  Strephon  move, 
Unless  it  be  the  gen'ral  Thoughts  of  Love ; 
That  thin  Camelion-Dyet  of  the  Air, 
Fancy's  Idea  of  an  Unknown  Fair. 
For  where,  or  what  she  is,  Heav'n  only  knows, 
'Till  Time  and  Fate  the  Secret  shall  disclose. 
But  there's  so  strange  a  Magick  force  in  Love,  50 

The  talking  on't  sometimes  may  fatal  prove; 
And  therefore,  gentle  Nymph,  let's  have  a  care, 
And  tell  no  more  such  Stories  now,  for  fear, 
Like  Children,  after  talking  of  a  Spright, 
The  fancy  on't  should  make  us  dream  at  night. 


10  POEMS 

To  a  Young  LADY, 

Who  was  said  to  be  almost  in  Love. 

Upon  her  Recovery. 

I  come,  bright  Virgin,  to  congratulate 

The  blest  Reverse  of  your  unhappy  Fate. 

Victorious  Love,  whose  Violence  and  Rage 

No  Hero  e'er  could  vanquish  or  asswage ; 

Victorious  Love,  that  keeps  his  Slaves  in  awe, 

That  conquers  Conqu'rors,  and  gives  Monarchs  Law ; 

Love,  that  by  boundless  Passion,  wild  Desire, 

Confounds  Mankind,  and  sets  the  World  on  Fire; 

That  Haughty  Tyrant,  that  Imperial  Foe  10 

You  have  o're-come,  and  lead  in  Triumph  now; 

Whilst  Guardian-Angels  round  about  you  flye, 

Triumphing  at  your  Souls  great  Victory. 

Those  glorious  Servants  of  the  Court  above, 
(Whose  God-like  immaterial  Beings  move, 
And  are  maintain'd  by  Harmony  and  Love) 
Cherish  no  Flames  but  what  unspotted  are, 
That  upwards  move,  and  have  their  Object  there, 
Their  Divine  Essence  makes  'em  disapprove 
Those  Storms  of  Nature,  which  we  take  for  Love  20 

And  you,  like  one  of  them,  have  scorn'd  your  Mind 
Should  harbour  any  Flame  that's  not  refin'd. 
Love,  when  submissive,  innocent,  and  pure, 
You  could  within  your  gentle  Breast  endure ; 
Within  those  unpolluted  Walls  it  lay, 
As  Harbinger  to  some  more  happy  Day; 
But  when  the  growing  Fire  began  to  burn 
Too  fierce,  and  Love  did  to  disorder  turn 
You  then,  inspir'd  by  some  Diviner  Flame, 
Its  dang'rous  Violence  did  quickly  tame,  30 

With  mighty  Thoughts  the  raging  Storm  supprest, 
And  threw  the  Viper  from  your  panting  Breast. 
May  Heav'n  be  kind,  and  take  a  special  Care 
Of  one  so  very  Good,  and  yet  so  Fair. 

To  a  LADY, 

Who  desired  me  not  to  be  in 
Love  with  Her 

I  will  obey  you  to  my  utmost  power ; 
You  cannot  ask,  nor  I  engage  for  more, 
But  if,  when  I  have  try'd  my  utmost  Skill, 


POEMS  11 

A  Tyde  of  Love  drives  back  my  floating  Will ; 
When  on  the  naked  Beach  you  see  me  lye, 
For  Pity's  sake  you  must  not  let  me  dye. 

Take  Pattern  by  the  glorious  God  of  Day 
And  raise  no  Storms  but  what  you  mean  to  lay, 
He,  when  the  Charms  of  his  attractive  Eye  10 

Have  stir'd  up  Vapors,  and  disturb'd  the  Sky, 
Lets  Nature  weep,  and  sigh  a  little  while, 
And  then  revives  her  with  a  pleasing  smile. 
If  'tis  to  try  me,  use  me  as  you  please, 
But,  when  that  Tryal's  over,  give  me  ease ; 
Don't  torture,  one  that  wishes  you  no  harm; 
Prepare  to  cure  me,  or  forbear  to  Charm. 

MUSARUM  ORIGO ; 

OR, 
The  Original  and  Excellence  of  the  Muses. 

I  sing  the  Muses  great  and  glorious  Birth, 
Those  spotless  Nymphs,  that  bles'd  the  Infant  Earth, 
Conceiv'd  by  Heavenly  Dew,  and  born  of  Thought, 
E're  Heathen  Gods  a  spurious  Brood  begot. 
A  far  more  lovely,  and  delightful  Race, 
Than  that  of  the  Castalian  Sisters  was. 
Celestial  Nymphs  assist  my  lab'ring  Pen, 
And  what  you  give  shall  be  your  own  agen. 

In  dissolute,  and  undiscerning  times, 

When  Vice  unmasks,  and  Vertues  pass  for  Crimes,  10 

The  sacred  Gift  of  charming-Poetry, 
Is  look'd  on  with  a  slight,  and  scornful  Eye; 
But  if  we  trace  the  steps  of  former  Years, 
It's  high  Descent,  and  Dignity  appears : 
'Twas  first  reveal'd  to  that  (a)  illustrious  Man 
With  whom  Religious  Rites  and  Laws  began; 
And  can  we  think  that  God  would  e're  impart 
To  such  a  one  a  mean  or  trivial  Art? 
When  Israel  with  a  wonder  pass'd  the  Sea, 
And  saw  how  Fate  pursu'd  their  enemy;  20 

Who  thought  like  them  to  have  escap'd  the  Waves, 
But  soon  were  buried  in  their  wat'ry  Graves ; 
Upon  their  mind  to  strike  the  blessing  home, 
And  make  'em  fit  for  Dangers  yet  to  come, 
Their  Godlike  Chief  employ'd  the  Poets  Art, 
And  blew  the  fire  that  warm'd  the  Peoples  Heart, 
(a)     Moses 


12  POEMS 

This  Gift  the  valiant  Hebrew  (b)  General  knew 
Who  was  a  Poet,  and  a  Souldier  too; 
To  make  him  fully  after  Gods  own  Heart, 
Heav'n  thought  it  fit  this  Blessing  to  impart ;  30 

And  with  such  force  of  thought  he  was  inspir'd  ] 
A  while  his  Hearers  list'ned,  and  admir'd, 
And  found  their  Blood  at  last  to  Action  fir'd 
He  painted  SufFrings  with  such  charming  Graces, 
That  willing  People  ran  to  their  Embraces, 
Despis'd  a  present  Gain,  or  vain  Applause, 
And  chose  to  suffer  in  a  glorious  Cause. 
He  rais'd  the  Mind  above  the  reach  of  Fear. 
And  arm'd  the  Souldier  for  approaching  War; 
Instructing  what  was  still  the  safest  Shield,  40 

And  who  were  always  sure  to  win  the  Field ; 
For  in  a  Cause  that's  just,  to  live  or  dye 
Is  to  the  Brave  an  equal  Victory ; 
Alive  in  bleeding  Foes  their  Swords  they  sheath, 
And,  if  they  fall  themselves,  they  vanquish  Death : 
Religion,  which  hath  naturally  a  Face 
Adorn'd  with  sweetness,  and  Celestial  Grace, 
In  his  fine  Thoughts,  in  his  soft  Members  drest, 
Has  Charms  too  ravishing  to  be  expressed. 
He  shew'd  the  Vanity  of  Hopes  and  Fears.  50 

Which  anxiously  depend  on  future  years ; 
Since  all  our  Destinys  are  form'd  above, 
And  in  a  firm,  unshaken  Order  move. 
And  (that  which  made  his  Copies  take  with  All) 
He  was  Himself  their  great  Original : 
As  prophets  most  successfully  will  teach, 
When  in  their  Lives  they  practice  what  they  Preach ; 

How  finely  twisted  is  the  Chain  of  Fate.  ] 
When  Heaven  had  fitted  him  for  things  so  great,  }• 
And  laid  the  scenes  of  all  his  future  Sate ;  J  60 

The  Curtain  drew,  and  (like  a  rising  Sun,) 
The  God-like  Youth  his  glorious  Race  begun ; 
His  Soul,  which  was  illustrious  from  his  Birth 
(Tho'  yet  conceal'd,  and  lodg'd  in  common  Earth) 
Brake  thro'  the  Clouds,  which  had  its  Rays  opprest, 
And  shew'd  the  Hero  blooming  in  his  Breast. 
The  Envious  view'd  him  with  a  Jealous  Eye, 
Enrag'd  to  see  his  Vertue  soar  so  high ; 
They  knew  his  Rural  Life,  and  low  Descent, 

(b)  David 


POEMS  13 

And  wond'red  what  the  busie  Planets  meant.  70 

Unmov'd  he  stood  upon  the  brink  of  Fate, 

The  Object  of  an  angry  Monarch's  Hate ; 

Banish'd  the  Court,  in  Trouble  and  Disgrace, 

Espos'd  to  shifts,  and  driven  from  place  to  place ; 

Heav'n's  usual  way  to  form  the  greatest  Minds: 

As  Trees  take  Root,  when  shaken  by  the  Winds. 

But  'tis  in  vain  to  strive  with  Destiny, 

What  is  Decreed  in  Heav'n  will  surely  be ; 

That  God,  who  has  resolv'd  to  make  him  great, 

Dash'd  all  his  Foes,  and  laid  'em  at  his  Feet ;  80 

He  laugh'd  at  all  their  policy  and  Strife, 

And  bless'd  the  World  with  his  illustrious  Life. 

When  wanted  in  the  Council,  or  the  Field, 

To  fruitful  pains  he  made  his  pleasure  yield ; 

His  Wit  was  busi'd  with  important  things, 

The  Arts  of  War,  and  Policies  of  Kings ; 

But  when  his  bus'ness  gave  him  leave  to  rest, 

With  gentler  Arts  he  mollifi'd  his  Breast; 

From  whence  soft  measures  flow'd,  and  ev'ry  Line 

Was  like  his  Actions,  Generous  and  Divine  90 

When  Solomon  succeeded  to  the  Crown, 

(The  Wisest  Prince  that  ever  grac'd  a  Throne,) 
Among  the  various  Gifts  that  fill'd  his  Heart, 
He  was  inspir'd  with  this  transcendent  Art. 
Witness  his  Songs  of  Love  so  finely  writ, 
Where  Nature  puts  on  various  forms  of  Wit, 
To  move  the  secret  springs  of  Sympathy, 
And  fire  the  Soul  into  an  Extasie. 

To  shew  the  Pleasures  of  the  blest  above, 
He  drew  the  Emblem  of  a  happy  Love;  100 

And  we  may  certainly  conclude  from  this, 
That  Love,  when  true  's  the  greatest  Human  Bliss: 
But  few  on  Earth  are  so  divinely  blest : 
The  hardest  things  to  find,  are  still  the  best ; 
Some  never  have  the  Blessing  in  their  Power, 
And  most  who  have,  neglect  their  lucky  hour ; 
Pride  and  Ambition,  Rules  of  Birth  and  State, 
And  Avarice,  give  Impression  to  their  Fate; 
From  whence  a  thousand  Errors  have  their  Birth, 
And  shut  'em  from  this  Paradise-on-Earth.  110 

O  happy  Times  of  Vertue,  Truth,  and  Sense! 
When  in  the  Muses  Virgin-Innocence, 
By  wicked  Men  and  Heathens  unenjoy'd 
They  were  in  all  the  highest  things  employed. 


14  POEMS 

In  the  great  Temple  of  the  living  God, 

(The  Place  of  his  Mysterious  Abode,) 

They^  sung  Jehova's  everlasting  Fame, 

And  made  the  sacred  Walls  repeat  his  Name ; 

They  wing'd  the  Soul,  and  taught  her  how  to  fly 

Thro'  all  the  glorious  Regions  of  the  Sky.  120 

To  taste  those  living  Streams  that  flow  above, 

And  bathe  in  Rivers  of  Eternal  Love ; 

They  sung  of  wonderful  and  mighty  Things, 

The  suddain  Turns  of  War,  and  Fate  of  Kings : 

Shewing  the  hand  that  moves  the  great  machine, 

And  forms  the  whole  Design  of  ev'ry  Scene; 

With  strength  of  Thought  and  Fancy  unconfin'd, 

At  once  they  pleas'd,  and  profited  the  Mind ; 

In  ev'ry  Accident  a  sure  Relief, 

They  vented  Joy,  and  moderated  Grief.  130 

The  Heathens,  lost  in  Ignorance's  Night, 
And  wand'ring  after  ev'ry  glim'ring  Light, 
Were  by  seducing  Spirits  cheated  still, 
And  under  Forms  of  Goodness  practis'd  111. 
What  ever  God  had  taught  the  happier  Jews. 
And  made  of  Great  Authority  and  Use, 
The  Devil  copy'd  out  with  curious  Art, 
The  better  to  ensnare  the  Gentiles  Heart. 
So  Gold,  that's  false,  too  often  goes  for  true, 
And  counterfeited  Jewels  cheat  the  view.  140 

But,  as  the  value  of  a  Copy  tells 
How  (more  or  less)  the  Original  excels ; 
By  what  the  Heathens  thought  of  Poetry, 
We  judge  its  real  and  ancient  Dignity. 

Poet,  and  Prophet  was  the  same  with  them, 
Titles  of  Knowledge,  Honour,  and  Esteem ; 
Whose  Works  the  wisest  Men,  and  greatest  Kings, 
Observ'd  as  sacred,  and  important  Things. 

The  (c)  great  Apostle  therefore  sent  to  call 
The  scatter'd  Gentiles,  and  prevent  their  Fall,  150 

When  with  the  best  Athenian  Wits  he  strove, 
And  chose  the  strongest  arguments  to  move, 
Confirming  Reason  with  Authority, 
Thought  none  so  fit  as  their  own  Poetry. 

Say,  Divine  Muse !  what  is  this  wondrous  Art, 
Which  breaths  such  Gentle  Fire  into  the  Heart? 
Is  it  the  noblest  Truths,  the  best  express'd, 
Or  Nature  in  Harmonious  Numbers  dress'd? 
(c)   St.  Paul 


POEMS  15 

Is  it  the  strongest  Thoughts  the  most  refin'd, 

Like  Cordial  Drops  to  f ortifie  the  Mind ;  160 

To  cherish  and  excite  that  Nat'ral  Heat, 

Which  spurs  us  on  to  all  that's  Good  and  Great? 

Tis  (like  the  strange  effects  of  Heat  and  Cold) 

Something  in  Nature  better  felt  than  told. 

LA 
MUSE  CAVALIERE; 

OR,  AN 
APOLOGY 

For  such  Gentlemen  as  make  Poetry 

their  Diversion,  not  their  Business. 
In  a  Letter  from  a  Scholar  of  MARS,  to  one  of 
APOLLO 

Damon,  I'm  told  the  Poets  take  it  ill 

That  I  am  call'd  a  Brother  of  the  Quill; 
To  end  their  Jealousie,  I  quit  the  Name, 
And  tho'  I  honour  a  true  Poet's  Fame, 
Yet,  since  my  Genius  points  out  other  Ways, 
And  bids  me  strive  for  Laurels,  not  for  Bays, 
I'll  keep  my  Heart  for  great  Bellona's  Charms; 
If  e're  she  takes  me  to  her  Glorious  Arms, 
She  shall  Command  my  Fortune  and  my  Life, 
My  Muse  is  but  my  Mistress,  not  my  Wife.  10 

Sometimes,  to  pass  my  idle  Hours  away, 
Or  ease  at  Night  the  Troubles  of  the  Day, 
Her  pleasing  Company  diverts  my  Mind, 
And  helps  my  weary  Temples  to  unbind. 

The  painful  Tiller  whistles  to  his  Plow, 
And  as  the  rural  Virgin  milks  her  Cow, 
Without  offence  to  more  accomplish'd  Art, 
An  untaught  Melody  revives  her  Heart  ; 
So  I,  "who  labour  in  Life's  painful  Field, 
With  harmless  Pleasure  strives  my  Cares  to  gild ;  20 

Whilst,  in  wild  Notes,  my  heedless  Thoughts  I  sing, 
And  make  the  Neighb'ring  Groves  and  Eccho's  ring. 

Like  those,  who  paint  for  Pastime,  not  for  Gain, 
I  sit  me  down  upon  the  spacious  Plain, 
And,  looking  here  and  there  among'st  the  Throng, 
I  take  rough  Sketches,  as  they  pass  along; 
Nor  do  I  follow  any  other  Rules, 


16  POEMS 

But  drawing  Knaves  like  Knaves,  and  Fools  like  Fools. 

I  grant  you,  'tis  a  Method  out  of  Use, 

But  'tis  the  best  for  my  unpolish'd  Muse ;  30 

She  has  not  learn'd  to  flatter  for  Applause, 
Or  laugh  at  any  man  without  a  Cause; 
To  injure  Virtuous  Women  for  a  Jest, 
That  none  may  pass  for  better  than  the  rest; 
Or  do  like  some,  who,  when  they  are  refus'd, 
And,  for  their  fond  Impertinence,  abus'd, 
Vent  their  weak  Malice  in  a  lewd  Lampoon, 
And  blast  the  Lady's  Fame  to  save  their  own; 
A  Fault  the  Sparks  are  much  addicted  to, 
They  do't  themselves,  or  pay  for  those  that  do.  40 

My  Muse  has  no  Mecenas  to  admire 
In  Raptures  high  as  Thought  and  sometimes  higher; 
Nor,  if  she  had  one,  cou'd  she  make  him  pass 
For  witty,  if  his  Lordship  were  an  Ass; 
Or  gild  his  darnish'd  Name  with,  Good  and  Jitft, 
If  he  liv'd  loosely,  or  betray 'd  his  Trust: 
Nor  can  she,  to  oblige  a  sottish  Town, 
Bribe  their  lewd  Fancies  for  a  false  Renown,}- 
By  praising  Vice,  and  crying  Virtue  down.      J 

This  makes  some  little  Criticks  fume  and  rage,          50 
And,  in  a  League,  against  my  Lines  engage; 
They  are  not  so  concern'd  for  Wit,  or  Art, 
But  'tis  the  Truth  that  stabs  e'm  to  the  Heart. 
If  stripping  Folly  of  that  gay  Attire, 
Which  Knaves  invent,  and  Fools  so  much  admire, 
I  shew  her  naked  to  the  World,  that  so 
Men  by  the  Aspect,  may  the  Demon  know; 
Some  more  Notorious  Fool,  that  thinks  he's  hit, 

Cry's  z ds,  do's  he  pretend  to  be  a  Wit  ? 

D me,  if  e're  I  heard  such  silly  stuff,  60 

There  he  breaks  off:    And  speaks  the  rest  in  Snuff. 

And  who  is  this,  so  pithy  and  so  short? 
A  Country-Blockhead,  or  a  Fop  at  Court? 
Some  Heir,  whose  Father  (snatch'd  away  by  Fate) 
Left  the  young  Spark  less  Judgment  than  Estate 
With  nothing  but  a  modern  Education,  ] 

To  Hunt,  and  Hawk,  and  Whore,  for  Recreation ;  }• 
And  Drink,  in  Honour  of  his  Prince  and  Nation ;  J 
A  Bubble,  that  has  nothing  in't  but  Air, 

Is  driv'n,  by  every  Blast,  it  knows  not  where:  70 

Just  such  an  empty  Thing  is  this  young  Sot, 
Who  talks  by  Rote,  and  thinks  he  knows  not  what. 


POEMS  17 

Such  Criticks  I  may  possibly  forgive, 

Because  (poor  Things)  they  speak  as  they  believe. 

Or  is't  a  Milksop,  that  has  liv'd  at  Court, 
That  Glorious  School,  tho'  n'ere  the  better  for't? 
Bred  up  in  fruitless  Luxury  and  Ease, 
Wash'd  and  perfum'd  into  a  soft  Disease, 
Which  makes  him  fear  the  Wind,  the  Rain,  or  Sun, 
As  bad  as  some  raw  Captains  do  a  Gun?  80 

The  Censure  of  so  visible  an  Ass 
Won't  hurt  me  much:    And  therefore  let  it  pass. 

Is  it  a  feeble  Scribler,  that  pursues 
His  own  Disgrace  by  fooling  with  a  Muse? 
But  hold — At  this  (methinks)  he  cocks  his  Hat, 
And  smiling,  says,  I  love  you,  Sir,  for  that; 
You  laugh  at  Faults,  which  You  (Your  self)  commit, 
Unless  y'are  lately  set  up  for  a  Wit. 
No,  Child.    But  what  I  write  is  Sense  and  True, 
And  that  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  you.  90 

Besides,  if  I've  a  Mind  to  play  the  Fool, 
(Because,  you  know,  'tis  Modish,  and  looks  cool,) 
You'll  own,  I  may;  And  so,  you'll  say,  may  you, 
By  the  same  Rule.     No  doubt  on't,  Prithee  do. 
Let  me  be  quiet,  and  do  what  you  will; 
Write  Essays,  say  fine  Things,  and  Rhyme  your  fill; 
Make  Prologues,  Epilogues,  Love-Songs,  and  Satyr; 
And,  at  low  Ebb  of  Fancy,  turn  Translator; 
Disgrace  the  Theater  with  Senseless  Farce, 
Or  stately  Nonsense  in  Heroick  Verse,  100 

With  Plays,  that  thwart  the  meaning  of  the  Stage, 
And  help  not  to  instruct,  but  spoil  the  Age, 
In  which,  to  turn  true  Virtue  out  o'  Doors, 
The  Hero's  all  are  Sots,  the  Ladies  Whores' : 
The  times  will  bear  it,  and  it  is  no  more 
Than  many  such  as  you  have  done  before. 
But  meddle  not  with  me ;  Or,  if  you  must,] 
Be  sure  the  Faults  you  find  are  very  just,  }• 
Or  if  I  parry  ye,  expect  a  Thrust.  J 

As  for  the  rambling  Injudicious  Wits,  110 

Who  talk  all  Weathers,  and  speak  Sense  by  Fits; 
If  they  should,  in  my  Absence,  run  me  down, 
And  to  expose  my  Weakness,  shew  their  own: 
Let  'em  be  quiet,  and  enjoy  their  Way; 
They  answer  to  the  full,  what  e're  they  say; 
Satyr  upon  themselves;  They  save  my  Writing; 
And  every  Thing  they  say  is  Dev'lish  biting. 


18  POEMS 

Thus  ev'ry  partial  Censurer  is  free 
To  play  the  Fool  himself,  and  laugh  at  me ; 
Let  him  contrive  to  carp  at  what  he  will ;  120 

Sense  will  be  Sense,  and  he  a  Block-head  still. 

And,  Damon,  since  I  make  this  Declaration, 
That  Poetry's  my  Pleasure,  not  Vocation, 
You,  and  your  Brethren,  ought  not  to  refuse 
Such  Pastime  to  an  unpretending  Muse. 
The  War,  you  say,  's  my  Calling.     And  what  then, 
You  use  a  Sword;  Why  may  not  I  a  Pen? 
You  give  a  Souldier  leave  to  eat  and  drink; 
And,  prithee,  why  not  give  hime  leave  to  think? 
You  may  indulge  with  safety  all  that  do,  130 

There  are  not  many  like  to  trouble  you. 

Then  let  each  Party  lay  their  Quarrels  by, 
Mind  their  own  Trade,  and  live  in  Charity. 
We  for  an  Iron-Harvest  will  prepare, 
And  plow  for  Honour  in  the  Fields  of  War: 
While  you  are  taught  more  safe  and  gentle  ways, 
To  purchase  an  Inheritance  of  Praise: 
But  now  and  then,  to  vary  for  Delight, 
Fight  you  like  Poets,  we'll  like  Souldiers  write. 

TO  THE 
DUTCHESS 

OF 

MONMOUTH, 

Who  honoured  me  with  her   Commands 
to   read  over   Monsieur  Boileau's   Po- 
ems, and  give  my  Opinion  of  him. 

Madam,  I  come  a  thousand  thanks  to  pay    ] 
To  that  fair  hand  that  pointed  out  the  way,  }• 

And  shew'd  me  where  so  great  a  Geinus  lay ;  j 

Your  generous  Commands  have  guided  me 

To  a  good  Model  of  true  Poetry. 

Of  all  the  Modern  Writers  who  have  try'd, 

With  easie  Wit,  Mens  Folly  to  deride, 

Boileau,  to  me,  the  most  accomplish'd  seems; 

Bold  and  Severe,  yet  free  from  all  extreams. 

Nature  to  some  has  giv'n  an  active  Wit,  10 

But  hardly  Sense  enough  to  manage  it; 

Who,  laughing  at  the  Follies  of  the  Town, 

Discover  twenty  greater  of  their  own. 


POEMS  19 

Others  in  Judgment  only  do  excel, 
And  in  Affairs  of  State  do  pretty  well; 
But  when  their  Nat'ral  Talent  they  abuse, 
And  offer  Force  to  an  unwilling  Muse, 
Their  awkward  Rhymes  their  very  Truth  disguise, 
And  make  the  World  afraid  of  being  wise. 

But  Boileaus  easie  and  unerring  Wit,  20 

Does  ev'ry  Coxcomb  so  exactly  hit, 
And  sets  before  his  eyes  so  true  a  Glass, 
That  Vice  no  longer  can  for  Vertue  pass; 
He  shews  the  Hipocrites  affected  zeal, 
That  lyes  in  talking,  not  in  doing  well; 
His  high  Pretences  serving  for  a  blind, 
In  God-Almighty's  Name  to  cheat  Mankind. 

But  does  not  bid  us  to  avoid  that  Evil; 
Declare  for  down-right- Atheism,  or  the  Devil: 
As  the  rash  Libertine  is  wont  to  do,  30 

(Something  the  shallower  Monster  of  the  two) 
Who  Vertue  impudently  ridicules, 
And  swears  that  all  Religious  Men  are  Fools ; 
'Till  dying  as  he  lives,  like  a  dull  Beast, 
He's  damn'd  in  earnest,  and  so  spoils  his  Jeast. 

He  shews  a  Fool  that  reads  huge  Volumes  o're, 
And  is  no  wiser  than  he  was  before; 
Who  fills  his  Head  with  empty  terms,  and  looks 
For  Wisdom  no  where  but  in  musty  Books ; 
'Tis  not  conversing  with  the  Dead  will  do,  40 

Unless  sometimes  one  reads  the  Living  too. 

If  an  illiterate  Sot  of  Quality 
Would  make  true  Knowledge  pass  for  Pedantry, 
Despising  Letters,  as  Mechanick  Arts, 
Too  mean  for  Gentlemen,  and  M en-o'- Parts ; 
While  his  whole  Business  is  to  Comb  and  Dress, 
And  in  a  Billet-doux  his  Mind  express; 
At  every  Publick  Meeting  to  appear, 
And  with  some  Nonsense  plague  some  Lady's  Ear; 
What-e're  he  finds  in  his  own  flatt'ring  Glass,  50 

I'm  sure  in  Boileau's  he's  an  arrant  Ass. 

He  tells  us  what  is  true  Nobility, 
Not  mouldy  Parchments,  and  a  Pedigree, 
Tho'  drawn  from  Caesar's  or  Achilles  Blood, 
Unless  a  Man  be  Valiant,  Just,  and  Good: 
If  a  gay  Bawble,  of  high  Titles  Proud, 
Serves  merely  to  be  gaz'd  at  by  the  Croud, 
And  by  .his  Ancestors  is  only  known, 


20  POEMS 

Not  having  any  Merit  of  his  own ; 

Tho'  in  his  Father's  Fame  he  glories  so,  60 

How  is  it  possible  for  him  to  know, 

But  that  his  Mother,  in  a  wanton  Vein, 

Suffer'd  some  loose  Gallant  to  cross  the  Strein? 

Sometimes  our  Satyrist  employs  his  Pen, 
To  copy  out  another  sort  of  Men; 
Those  scribling  Interlopers,  who  without 
Commission  from  Apollo  venture  out. 

Here  in  a  Song  some  Fopling  of  the  Town, 
Who  has  a  mind  to  have  his  Talent  known, 
In  cool  Blood  curses  Fate,  and  Sighs,  and  Crys,  70 

And  at  the  end  of  the  Fourth  Stanza  dyes. 

There  a  mean  fawning  Fellow  skrews  a  Lye 
To  such  a  senseless  pitch  of  Flattery, 
As  is  beyond  the  greatest  Mortals  due; 
And  ridicules  his  Muse,  and  Hero  too. 

But  whither  is't  my  heedless  Muse  would  run? 
Madam,  I  hope  you'll  pardon  what  sh'  has  done; 
Before  so  great  a  Judge  of  Sense  and  Wit, 
She  should  not  once  pretend  to  talk  of  it; 
Yet  when  I  read  th'  illustrious  B oilcan's  Verse,  80 

Something  so  very  charming  there  appears, 
And  with  so  strange  a  heat  inspires  my  Pen ; 
But  hold,  My  Muse  would  fain  begin  agen, 
No,  I  shall  teach  her  a  far  better  Way, 
Since  she  to  Boilcau's  Fame  will  Tribute  pay; 
And,  Madam,  I  shall  give  him  full  his  due, 
By  only  saying,  that  he  pleases  You. 

IN  PRAISE  OF 

HUNTING: 

Leaving  the  Town  and  PHILLIS. 

Tell  me  no  more  of  Venus,  and  her  Boy, 
His  flaming  Darts,  and  her  transporting  Joy; 
With  Dreams  of  Pleasure  they  delude  our  Mind, 
Which  pass  more  swiftly  than  the  fleeting  Wind; 
The  bright,  the  Chaste  Diana  Fie  adore, 
She'll  free  my  Heart  from  Love's  insulting  Power; 
Thro'  pleasing  Groves,  and  o're  the  healthful  Plain, 
She  leads  the  innocent,  and  happy  Swain. 


POEMS 


21 


Then  f arewel  guilty  Crowds,  and  empty  Noise ; 
I  leave  you  for  more  pure,  and  lasting  Joys ; 
In  stately  Woods,  guilded  with  Morning  Rays, 
I'll  teach  the  Eccho's  great  Diana's  Praise. 

STREPHON  and  PHILLIS. 
A  Dialogue  set  by  Mr.  King ;  Servant  to 

his  MAJESTY. 

A  soft  Symphony  of  Instruments. 

Streph.     Hear,  Phillis,  hear  my  humble  Tale, 

And  then  pronounce  my  Destiny ; 

If  Truth  and  Honour  can't  prevail, 

It  is  my  Fate,  and  I  must  dye. 

But  should  my  Death  Injustice  prove, 

It  would  offend  the  God  of  Love, 

And  might  on  you  his  Vengeance  move. 
Phil         Why,  Shepherd,  what  have  I  to  do 

With  Strephon,  or  his  Destiny? 

No,  no,  dissembling  Wretch,  'tis  you  10 

That  would  contrive  to  mine  me ; 

When,  by  a  soft  inchanting  Art, 

You  would  a  secret  Flame  impart, 

To  Fire  the  Temple  of  my  heart. 
Sire.        What  can  a  wretched  Swain  contrive 

Against  the  force  of  matchless  Charms  ? 

I  only  ask  that  I  may  live, 

Or  if  I  dye,  dye  in  your  Arms : 

I  languish  in  so  warm  Desire, 

And  burn  with  such  a  Noble  Fire;  20 

As  can't  without  my  life  expire. 
Phil.         Cou'd  I  your  Sighs  and  Vows  believe, 

I  should  incline  to  pity  you, 

But  'tis  your  Bus'ness  to  deceive, 

And  not  your  Nature  to  be  true. 

Begon  then,  flattVing  Youth,  begon, 

And  leave  me  in  these  shades  alone, 

For  if  I  love,  I  am  undone. 

Another  Symphony  of  Instruments. 

CHORUS. 

But  see  what  Crowds  of  Cupids  stand  to  hear, 
And  seem  to  laugh  at  what  we  vainly  fear ; 
Let  us,  like  them,  all  Dreams  of  111  despise, 
And  bravely  on  to  win  'a  noble  Prize. 


22  POEMS 

FRIENDSHIP. 

A  SONG,  set  by  Mr.  King. 

Friendship  dwells  with  Secresie, 

In  discreet  and  faithful  Hearts, 
Free  from  foolish  Vanity, 
And  Flattery's  dissembling  Arts. 

Others  may,  by  Talk  and  show, 
Let  the  World  their  Passion  know ; 
Ours  shall  be  unseen,  untold, 
Safe  and  secure  as  hidden  Gold. 

Fond  and  Idle  Fops  believe, 

Love  delights  in  Noise  and  State ;  10 

But  the  Fools  themselves  deceive, 
And  blast  the  Joys  they  would  create. 

Two  serene  harmonious  Minds, 
Which  no  meaner  Passion  blinds, 
Make  that  quiet  blest  Retreat, 
Where  Love  delights  to  build  a  Seat. 

Come,  my  Dearest  Phillis,  come, 
Let's  unfold  each  other's  Breast, 
And,  in  Mists  no  longer  roam, 
But  make  our  selves  entirely  blest.  20 

Gently,  with  indulgent  Sway, 
Make  my  yielding  Heart  obey, 
And,  if  I  unfaithful  prove, 
Then  may  I  dye,  and  lose  your  Love. 

A  SONG. 
Made  to  a  French  Tune 

On  Racks  of  Love  distended 

Here  lies  a  faithful  Swain, 
Wishing  his  Life  were  ended, 

Or  some  Respite  to  his  pain. 

The  plague  of  dubious  Fate 

Is  an  111  beyond  enduring, 

If  I  am  not  worth  your  curing, 
Kill  me  quickly  with  your  Hate. 


POEMS  23 


But  why  should  Wit  and  Beauty 

Be  guilty  of  such  Crimes?  10 

Sure  'tis  a  Womans  Duty 

To  be  merciful  sometimes. 

With  Justice  you  may  slay 

The  ungrateful,  and  aspiring; 

But  the  Humble,  and  Admiring, 
You  should  treat  a  nobler  way. 

A  SONG, 
Set  by  Mr.  Hart,  Servant  to  his  Majesty. 

As  gazing  on  that  lovely  charming  Face, 

My  Eys  survey  the  Inchanted  Place ; 
There,  there,  methinks,  I  see 
The  God  of  Love,  in  all  his  Gallantry, 
And  Troops  of  lesser  Deities  attending  by. 

While  from  that  glorious  Field  of  mighty  Love 
Cupids  in  aiery  Forms  do  move, 

And  subtily  conspire 

To  strengthen  Passion,  and  enrage  Desire ; 
Still  conquering  ev'ry  Heart,  or  setting  it  on  Fire.  10 

Mine,  by  my  unresisting  Eyes  betray'd, 

And  vanquish'd,  willingly  obey'd ; 

Nor  do  I  wish  to  be 
Again  Possessor  of  my  Liberty ; 
No,  Phillis,  no,  I  love  in  you  ev'n  Tyranny. 

Farewell  to  PHILLIS. 
Set  by  Mr.  King,  &c. 

One  Look,  and  I  am  gone ; 

Phtilis,  my  Part  is  done ; 
Death,  your  pale  Rival's  come, 

And  calls  me  home. 

Clasp'd  in  her  frozen  Arms, 
I  shall  be  free  from  Harms, 
And  only  pity  thee 

In  misery ; 
For,  since  your  kindness  is  turn'd  into  Hate, 


24  POEMS 

From  cruel  you,  Fie  flye  to  kinder  Fate :  10 

Then,  too  late, 
You'l  wish  me  back  again ; 

Then,  too  late, 
You'l  pity  him  your  Eyes  have  slain. 

DESPAIR. 

A  SONG,  set  by  Mr.  Abel,  Servant  to 
His  MAJESTY. 

0  You  immortal  Powers  of  Love, 
Why  do  you  all  my  Hopes  remove? 

You  give  me  up  to  certain  Fate, 
And  force  me  to  be  desperate. 

Is  it  for  this  I've  sacrific'd 
My  Quiet,  and  the  World  despis'd  ? 
To  burn,  to  bleed,  to  sigh,  to  groan, 
To  Love,  be  wretched,  and  undone  ? 

When  first  you  did  my  Soul  inspire, 

And  I  aproach'd  your  gentle  Fire,  10 

Was  I  unwilling  to  forego 

My  Ease,  and  be  a  Slave  to  you  ? 

1  hasten'd  to  the  Myrtle  Grove, 
And  there  an  Altar  rais'd  to  Love ; 

On  which  my  Heart  still  burning  lies, 
Inflam'd,  at  first,  by  Phillis's  Eyes. 

She  pull'd  it  from  my  panting  Breast, 

And  in  a  Veil  of  Crimson  drest, 

'Twas  on  the  fatal  Altar  laid, 

By  the  too  rash,  unthinking  Maid.  20 

For,  oh!  I  fear,  she  did  prophane, 
And  take  Love's  sacred  Name  in  vain ; 
For  which  unhappy  Error,  I, 
By  injur'd  Love,  am  doom'd  to  dye. 

The  Innocent  GAZER. 

A  SONG, 
Set  by  Mr.  King,  &c. 

Lovely  Lucinda  blame  not  me, 

If  on  your  beauteous  looks  I  gaze ; 


POEMS  25 


How  can  I  help  it,  when  I  see 
Something  so  charming  in  your  Face  ? 

That  like  a  bright  unclowded  Sky, 
When  in  the  Air  the  Sun-beams  play, 
It  ravishes  my  wond'ring  Eye, 
And  warms  me  with  a  pleasing  Ray. 

An  Air  so  settled,  so  serene, 

And  yet  so  gay,  and  easie  too,  10 

On  all  our  Plains  I  have  not  seen 

In  any  other  Nymph  but  you. 

But  Fate  forbids  me  to  design 
The  mighty  Conquest  of  your  breast, 
And  I  had  rather  torture  mine, 
Than  Rob  you  of  one  Minutes  Rest. 

A  SONG, 

Set  by  Mr.  King,  &c. 

Only  tell  her  that  I  love, 

Leave  the  rest  to  her  and  Fate, 
Some  kind  Planet  from  above, 
May,  perhaps,  her  pity  move ; 

Lovers  on  their  Stars  must  wait, 
Only  tell  her  that  I  love. 

Why,  oh  why,  should  I  despair, 

Mercy's  pictur'd  in  her  Eye ; 
If  she  once  vouchsafe  to  hear, 
Welcome  Hope,  and  farewel  Fear:  10 

She's  too  good  to  let  me  dye, 
Why,  oh  why,  should  I  despair. 

A  Song,  set  by  Mr.  King,  &e. 

The  cruel  Nymph  had  with  dissembled  Hate, 

Pronounc'd  her  Strephon's  wretched  Fate, 

When  the  Swain  saw  a  Combate  in  her  Eye, 
Youthful  and  active  Love, 
With  daring  Honour  strove, 

And  eagerly  pursu'd  the  Victory. 

At  length  the  Imperious  Foe  was  forc'd  to  yield, 
And  Love  commanded  all  the  Field : 


26  POEMS 

Then,  on  her  Cheeks  his  Banners  he  display'd, 

And  in  Triumphant  State,  10 

To  applaud  the  Conquerours  Fate, 
Legions  of  Cupids  grac'd  the  lovely  Maid. 

On  a  Fine  Lady's  Singing. 
A  Song,  set  by  Mr.  King,  &c. 

How  like  Elisium  is  the  Grove, 

When  chaste  Dorinda  sings  of  Love? 

It  charms  the  troubled  Soul  to  rest, 

And  makes  a  Calm  in  ev'ry  Brest : 

With  various  kinds  of  Harmony, 

She  strikes  at  once  the  Ear  and  Eye : 

So  soft  her  Voice,  and  she  so  Fair, 

Gives  double  sweetness  to  the  Air. 

The  wretched  Strephon,  dumb  with  Pain, 

And  Grief  too  heavy  to  complain :  10 

When  soft  Dorinda  tunes  her  Voice, 
Forgets  his  Woe,  and  dreams  of  Joys. 

O  Lovely  Charmer !  be  so  kind, 
To  ease  sometimes  a  Wretches  Mind : 
His  Groans  with  gentler  Sounds  controul, 
And  breathe  a  Balm  into  his  Soul. 

Farewel  to  Love. 
A  SONG,  set  by  Mr.  King,  &c. 

Strephon  retiring  from  the  Town, 

Came  Musing  to  a  Neighb'ring  Grove, 
Where,  in  the  Shades,  he  laid  him  down, 
And  to  himself  thus  talk'd  of  Love. 

'Twas  in  the  Golden  Age,  said  he, 
That  Cupid  held  a  peaceful  Reign, 
He  exercis'd  no  Tyrany, 
Nor  could  his  Subjects  then  complain. 

The  innocent,  and  faithful  Swain, 

Not  ty'd  to  Rules  of  Birth  and  State,  10 

With  freedom  rambled  o're  the  Plain, 
And,  like  the  Turtle,  chose  his  Mate. 


POEMS  27 

The  Nymph  comply'd  without  Constraint, 
By  her  own  Fancy  only  led, 
And  never  any  sad  Complaint 
Disturb'd  the  happy  Lovers  Bed. 

But,  oh !  The  Golden  Age  is  gone, 
And  Cupid's  Laws  are  not  the  same. 
Love  is  an  empty  Name  alone, 
'Tis  Fate  and  Fortune  play  the  Game.  20 

And  must  it  thus  for  ever  be  ? 
Will  those  blest  Days  return  no  more  ? 
Then  Thoughts  of  Love  disturb  not  me, 
Fie  from  this  Minute  give  your  o're. 

TO  MY  LORD  SKARDELL. 

Insulting  rival,  do  not  boast 

Your  Conquest  lately  won. 
No  wonder  that  her  heart  was  lost 

Where  senses  first  were  gone. 

O'er  one  that's  under  Bedlam's  laws 

What  triumph  can  be  had. 
For  loving  you  was  not  the  cause 
But  sign  of  being  mad. 

FINIS. 


NOTES  TO  THE  POEMS 
THE  TITLE  PAGE 

Roger  L' Estrange:  Tory  journalist  and  pamphleteer  (1661-1704). 
He  advocated  in  1663  a  more  stringent  press  censorship  and  in  the 
same  year  was  appointed  licenser  of  the  press. 

A  form  of  press  censorship  was  in  force  soon  after  printing  was 
introduced,  but  supervision  was  particularly  active  in  the  seventeenth 
century;  licensing  was  required,  tho  often  avoided.  In  1695  the 
House  of  Commons  refused  to  renew  the  provision  requiring  licensing. 
Stage  plays  must  still  be  licensed,  however,  in  England. 

R.  Bentley,  S.  Magnes:  Bentley's  name  begins  to  appear  on  title 
pages  in  1675  and  is  found  frequently  during  this  period.  The  name 
of  S.  Magnes  does  not  appear  until  1683,  tho  that  of  James  Magnes 
is  found  as  early  as  1670. 

THE  DEDICATION 

Elogies:  a  summary  of  character;  usually,  and  here,  in  a  favor- 
able sense. 

lineally  descended,  etc.:  Mary  was,  of  course,  descended  in  the 
Stuart  line,  the  elder  daughter  of  James  II,  and  sister  of  Queen  Anne. 

growing  Hero:  William  of  Orange,  to  whom  the  Princess  Mary 
had  been  married  in  1677,  when  she  was  fifteen. 

Beauty  and  Gracefulness:  the  dedication  is,  of  course,  written 
in  the  language  of  flattery.  One  of  Mary's  biographers,  however,  re- 
fers to  her  as  "the  beautiful  Lady  Mary" ;  and  her  portraits  give  her 
a  modicum  of  beauty. 

to  sully  any  part  of  this  character:  just  what  or  who  is  referred 
to  is  not  evident.  Dr.  Lake,  one  of  Mary's  former  chaplains,  found 
fault  with  her  for  playing  cards  on  Sunday  and  for  adopting  William's 
latitudinarian  principles ;  and  her  father  James  set  Dr.  Covell,  another 
chaplain,  and  several  ladies  of  her  court  to  spy  upon  her. 

As  for  this  Little  Present:  see  pages  xlii-xliii  for  references  to 
items  in  this  paragraph. 

Truth  and  Virtue  ....  when  they  are  almost  driven  out  of  the 
World:  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  is,  as  is  well 
known,  notorious  for  its  shameless  immorality  and  indecency  of 
speech. 

28 


NOTES  29 

WISDOM 

6  f f .    Compare  the  following  from  Katherine  Philips'  "Content" : 
"But  now  some  sullen  Hermit  Smiles, 

And  thinks  he  all  the  world  beguiles, 

And  that  his  cell  and  dish  contain 

What  all  mankind  wish  for  in  vain. 
But  yet  his  pleasure's  followed  with  a  groan, 
For  man  was  never  born  to  be  alone". 

7.  The  Sullen  Fumes  of  whose  distempered  Brain:  this  is  the 
old  notion  that  gases  from  the  stomach  rise  to  the  brain  and  cause 
diseases — in  this  case,  perhaps,  insanity.  Thus  affected,  the  hermit 
without  any  benefit  torments  himself  by  a  living  a  solitary  life. 

10.     the  End:  i.  e.,  society. 

17,  18.  When  moi/d  by  chance,  etc.:  public  opinion,  moved  by 
chance,  not  merit,  destroys  or  constructs,  at  will  the  false  shadow, 
reputation. 

59  ff.  There  is  something  of  the  same  spirit  here  that  later  at 
Buda  and  Namur  gave  Cutts  a  name  for  extraordinary  bravery. 

64.    The  poem  closes  with  an  alexandrine. 

TO  MR.  WALLER. 

No  letter  or  poem  of  Waller's  commending  Cutts'  verses  has  been 
found.  Commendation  from  Waller,  to  most  of  his  contemporaries 
the  name  above  all  other  names  in  English  poetry,  was,  of  course,  ex- 
ceedingly gratifying;  but  such  forms  of  commendation  were  common, 
and  can  be  looked  upon  only  as  a  polite  acknowledgment  of  friendship. 

27.     So  in  the  War:  a  figure  from  Cutts'  own  profession  of  arms. 

THE  TYRANNY  OF  PHILLIS. 
4.     careless:  exempt  from  care. 

33.  Commandress:  a  word  used  chiefly  in  the  seventeenth 
century. 

46.  That  thin  Camelion-Dyet  of  the  Air:  because  of  the  chame- 
leon's power  to  exist  for  long  periods  without  food,  they  were  for- 
merly supposed  to  live  on  air.  This  was  the  usual  spelling  of  chameleon 
down  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

17  ff .  Various  forms  of  this  figure  are  to  be  found  frequently  in 
our  literature.  The  best  known,  perhaps,  is  Sir  John  Suckling's  "The 
Siege".  For  other  uses  see  Schelling,  F.  E.,  Seventeenth  Century 
Lyrics,  260. 


30  NOTES 


MUSARUM  ORIGO 

19.  Cf.  the  following  from  Mrs.  Philips  "On  the  Fair  Weather 
just  at  the  Coronation" : 

"So  Israel  past  through  the  divided  flood, 
While  in  obedient  heaps  the  Ocean  stood ; 
But  the  same  sea  (the  Hebrews  once  on  shore) 
Return'd  in  torrents  where  it  was  before". 

25.  Their  Godlike  Chief  employ' d  the  Poet's  Art:  see  Exodus 
15,1-19. 

40.    safest  Shield:  surest  means  of  protection  against  injury. 

60.  Sate:  a  misprint  for  "State". 
81.     Policy:  tricks,  devices.    Obsolete. 
133.    still:  continually. 

153.     He  refers,  of  course,  to  the  quotations  in  Acts  17,  28. 
159.     Cordial  Drops:  restorative  or  invigorating  medicine. 

LA  MUSE  CAVALIERE 

The  first  edition  was  licensed  by  Roger  L'Estrange  on  November 
10,  1685,  and  was  printed  in  the  same  year  for  Tho.  Fox,  at  the  Angel 
and  Star  in  Westminster  Hall. 

1.  Damon:  Damon  was  a  goatherd  in  one  of  Virgil's  eclogues. 
By  using  the  name,  does  Cutts  mean  to  suggest  contempt  for  his  critic  ? 

45.     darnished:  a  misprint  for  "tarnished". 

57.  Demon:  evil  spirit,  not  a  protecting  divinity.  So  used  in 
Henry  V,  II,  2,  120. 

61.  Snuff:  the  use  of  snuff  became  fashionable  in  England  about 
1680.    The  use  of  the  word  here  is  thus  comparatively  early. 

In  the  first  edition  after  lines  80,  84,  and  109  respectively  these  sets 
of  lines  follow : 

"Who  can  no  Business,  but  the  Ladys,  do, 
And  that  sometimes,  I  doubt  but  weakly  too". 

"Who,  in  her  forc'd  Embraces,  vainly  strives, 
Like  some  old  Citizens  with  brisk  young  Wives". 

But  if  a  Satyrist  in  Masquerade, 
Who  hides  himself,  because  he  is  affraid, 
Like  Murderers,  attacks  me  in  the  Dark, 


NOTES  31 

I  know  not  how  to  deal  with  such  a  Spark : 

Yet,  if  I  catch  him,  I'll  his  Crimes  rehearse, 

And  have  the  Rogue  hang'd  up  in  Chains  of  Verse". 

109.     Or:  the  first  edition  has  For. 

116.    Satyr:   we  must  probably  understand  "they  write,"  or  the 
equivalent,  to  precede  "satyr". 

118.     Thus  ei/ry:  the  first  edition  has  In  short,  Each. 

These  two  sets  of  lines  follow  on  pages  13-14  and  15-16  in  the 
first  edition  of  the  poem : 

To  the  Author 

OF 
LA  MUSE 

DE 
CAVALIER. 

Thou  say'st  thou'rt  Mar's  Scholar,  and  'tis  true, 
So  far,  we  own,  th'ast  giv'n  thy  self  thy  due ; 

For  thou  art  ev'n  as  much  to  learn  in  Fight 

(Tho'  thou  dost  praise  thy  Writing)  as  to  write. 

Yet  thou  art  angry,  that  the  World  thinks  fit 

To  brand  thy  Poems  with  the  want  of  Wit; 

And,  in  thy  Vindication,  writ  so  ill, 

Y'ave  giv'n  this  World  fresh  Cause  to  laugh  on  still. 

Ev'n  Bessus  has  to  Courage  more  Pretence, 

Than  you,  a  Brother  of  the  Quill,  to  Sense : 

For  thou  hast  hitten  ev'ry  thing  so  pat, 

No  Body  knows  what  'tis  thou  wou'd'st  be  at. 

Write  on  then,  Friend,  carp  at  the  Stage  and  Court, 

Some  Authors  were  created  for  our  Sport, 

And  thou  art  one  ....  who,  with  such  mighty  Pains, 

Hast  prov'd  thou  hast  large  Ears,  but  little  Brains. 

To  an  unknown  SCRIBLER,  Who 

directed  a  railing  Paper  to  the  Author  of 
LA  MUSE  de  CAVALIER,  &c. 

EASING  my  Body,  t'other  Day, 

Or  sh g,  as  a  Man  may  say, 

My  Foot-man  brought  me  in  your  Rhymes 

(How  luckily  Things  hit  sometimes!) 

No  Posture  could  have  been  so  fit 

To  deal  with  such  a  desp'rate  Wit, 


32  NOTES 

Who  is  at  War  with  Common  Sense, 
And  plays  the  Fool  in's  own  Defence. 

But  whilst  thou  think'st  to  laugh  at  me, 
All  Men  of  Judgment  smile,  to  see 
How  Nature  makes  a  Jest  of  Thee, 
In  giving  thee  a  Fatal  Itch 
To  talk  of  Things  above  thy  Pitch. 
By  such  weak  Spight  as  Thine,  we  find 
How  Heav'n  has  to  the  World  been  kind, 
In  tempering  the  Knave  with  Fool, 
And  making  Envious  Railers  dull. 

Thou  say'st  I  carp  at  Court  and  Stage, 
But  thou  art  blinded  with  thy  Rage, 
I  only  carp  at  Sots,  like  Thee, 
Who  are  to  both  an  Infamy. 
Thou  say'st,  I'm  vex'd,  the  World  thinks  fit 
To  brand  my  Verse  with  want  of  Wit: 
Because  it  happens  so  to  Thee, 
Thou  fain  would'st  turn  it  upon  Me. 
Thy  Muse  sings  hoarse,  and  out  of  Time, 
An  arrant  Billings-gate  in  Rhyme : 
Therefore,  when  I  had  read  thy  Verse, 

In  Answer  to't,  I  wip'd 

And  if  thy  Name  thou'lt  let  me  know, 
111  do  so  with  the  Author  too. 

FINIS. 


TO  THE  DUTCHESS  OF  MONMOUTH. 
3.     Geinus:  doubtless  a  misprint  for  "genius." 
THE  INNOCENT  GAZER. 

The  first  two  stanzas  of  this  appear  anonymously  and  set  to  music 
in  Pills  to  Purge  Melancholy,  IV,  309.  "Lucinda"  is  changed  to  "Lau- 
rinda",  and  the  order  of  the  last  two  words  in  line  1  is  reversed,  prob- 
ably for  the  sake  of  rime.  As  the  music  is  also  anonymous,  it  is  im- 
possible to  say  whether  it  is  that  written  originally  for  the  poem  by 
King. 


NOTES  33 


FRIENDSHIP. 

Mrs.  Philips  has  a  poem  entitled  "A  retir'd  Friendship";  the 
thought  and  the  phrasing  of  it  suggest  that  Cutts  may  have  read  it. 
A  few  stanzas  follow : 

"Come,  my  Ardelia,  to  this  Bower, 

Where  kindly  mingling  souls  awhile, 
Let's  innocently  spend  an  hour, 

And  at  all  serious  follies  smile. 

"But  we  (of  one  another's  mind 

Assur'd)  the  boisterous  World  disdain  j 
With  quiet  souls  and  unconfin'd 

Enjoy  what  Princes  wish  in  vain". 

TO  MY  LORD  SKARDELL. 

This  poem  is  to  be  found  among  the  Cowper  MSS.  in  the  Hist. 
MSS.  Comm.,  Illrd  Report,  Append.,  187.  It  is  there  attributed  to 
Lord  Cutts.  No  other  reference  to  Lord  Skardell  has  been  found ;  he 
may,  indeed,  have  existed  only  in  Cutts'  imagination. 


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